Mazda's next big thing confirmed

Mazda’s next big thing isn’t going to be very large.

The company confirmed it is working on its next-generation small cars, which were previewed by the Vision-X concept at the recent Japan Mobility Show.

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Mazda’s in-house developed hybrid technology is slated to land in the new CX-5 towards the end of 2027, so it is likely the range of small cars will start to appear towards the end of the decade.

“It comes to being a modestly sized company, our return on sales [of small cars] isn’t good enough from a business standpoint,” said Guyton.

“Our highest priority has been our large platform products, and finally getting those right, and using those to make some money.

“Next priority is the CX-5, which will come to your market soon, and soon-ish thereafter is the hybrid version of that car with Mazda’s own hybrid.

“Soon after that next priority is smaller architecture cars,” he said.

This opens the door to next-gen Mazda2 and Mazda3 small cars and CX-30 and CX-3 compact SUVs, with the latter expected to be called CX-20.

Mazda Australian Managing Director Vinesh Bhindi said the Vision-X Concept previewed the direction for all cars under the CX-5.

“What we’ve been told is [the concept] forms the small architecture for Mazda - anything under Mazda CX-5,” said Bhindi.

“But what model it replaces and when and under which nameplate is still to be decide. But anything under CX-5 in our range, is say Mazda2, Mazda CX-3, Mazda3, CX-30. So there’s four and that’s based on small architecture.”

He was quick to point out that the concept was more focused on design and how the next-generation small car could look like.

Mazda was light on details of what may power the small car of the future, but electrification would have to play a big part if the series was launching into the next decade.

The show car’s lack of tailpipes and mostly flush front end hint that the future production car might be fully electric.

Mazda said the Vision-X would use AI to help make the car more intuitive for the driver and to help build a relationship between the driver and the car.