With a few special exceptions, Mazda’s paint color offerings for the ND generation of Miata have been lacking in, well, color. Most of the hues have been various shades of grey, save for Soul Red, and occasionally a desaturated blue in a light or dark shade. So, even though Zinc Green Metallic is also low on actual color, it still has Miata fans, including us, excited. It’s also the first time that this generation has had a green option.
Now, you would think Mazda was inspired to create the color for the Miata, considering the model’s history with the hue, but apparently this combination was more of a happy accident.
Mazda Miata PS Edition JapanMazda
The CX-50 Was Supposed To Get This Color
Japanese car news outlet Response learned the story of Zinc Green from Mazda’s Chief Designer of CMF, Kaito Seno. He revealed that the reason Mazda developed this color was because Mazda’s US branch wanted a green color not for the Miata, but for the CX-50. He said they wanted something outdoorsy. That makes sense, since Mazda has marketed the CX-50 as a more rugged option to the CX-5, even giving it a unique trim to up the adventure-ready design.
Mazda Miata PS Edition JapanMazda
When the team at Mazda started working on it, though, they had a different idea for the color. Seno told Response that they wanted something that could fit other vehicles in the lineup that didn’t have the same wilderness focus. That apparently led to thinking about airplanes, and the zinc chromate primer that inspired this color is often used in plane construction. Then, while the color was in development, Seno said that the team happened to do a sketch of the Miata in the color, and everybody liked it, which led to it appearing on the little convertible.
Did The CX-50 Get A Green Color Then?
This is the other interesting part of the story. So far, the Miata is the only car to get the Zinc Green Metallic paint, but that doesn’t mean Mazda cancelled the green idea for the CX-50. Instead, it’s available with a color called Cypress. It’s much more saturated and obviously green from a distance and in any light. It’s arguably the more traditional outdoorsy green Mazda’s US division was looking for to begin with.
The 2025 Mazda CX-50 is now available in Cypress Green.Mazda
Cypress didn’t come from Mazda, though. Instead, it comes from Toyota. What made this possible was the fact that Mazda and Toyota share a factory outside Huntsville, Alabama. That factory builds the CX-50, but also the Toyota Corolla Cross, which is available in the very same color with the very same name. It’s not the only Toyota available in Cypress, but we’re certain that having the Corolla Cross and CX-50 at the same factory made it easy to share the color.
The 2025 Mazda CX-50 is now available in Cypress Green.Mazda
There’s another bit of evidence for this. Just as the Mazda CX-50 is the only Mazda to use a Toyota color, the Toyota Corolla Cross is the only Toyota that gets a Mazda color. It’s available in the Hiroshima-based automaker’s signature Soul Red Crystal, and it has the same name on the Toyota, just like Cypress on the CX-50.
2026 Toyota Corolla Cross XLE AWD front 3/4Toyota
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
For as good as Soul Red is, we’ve been pining for more colors from Mazda for years now. It seems that the company has been going for more muted colors as part of its plans to be more premium. We have seen some interesting options starting to pop up, such as lovely wine red and rose gold hues on the CX-90 and CX-70, but we’d like to see more, and don’t think they would detract from the premium move when done right.
2025 Mazda CX-70 Premium Plus Gold Side AngleMazda
Zinc Green seems like a decent compromise, and we hope it will let Mazda feel more free to pursue real color. Seno even says in the main Response piece that he likes bright colors and wants them on new cars.
We hope Seno gets his way.
Source: Response
