Mazda vehicle designers will be taking home a big bonus this year end as they have once again proven their ability to be at the top of the car design game with, not one, but two Red Dot Design awards for 2020.
The new Mazda CX-30 compact SUV and MX-30 electric car have both been recognised in the ‘Red Dot: Product Design 2020’ awards. Both cars join the growing list of award-winning Mazda models designed under the Kodo: Soul of Motion philosophy.
Initiated in 1955, Red Dot is one of the world’s largest design competitions. These are the eighth and ninth Red Dot awards won by Mazda’s Kodo models to date, following the all-new Mazda3 in 2019, the MX-5 RF in 2017, the MX-5 soft top, CX-3 and Mazda2 (all 2015), the previous generation Mazda3 (2014) and the Mazda6 (2013).
The new CX-30 is the second production model created with the latest evolution of the Kodo design philosophy – artful design, rooted in traditional Japanese aesthetics. The honing of every element according to the ‘less is more’ principle has resulted in clean, beautiful surfaces and brought an entirely original look to the compact crossover SUV segment.
“The Japanese master craftsmen have always prized simplicity of form, of being beautifully pure,” says Jo Stenuit, Mazda’s European Design Director. “This inspired our designers to trim back elements and create something dynamic yet elegant, restrained yet vital. This is how we perceive Japanese aesthetics – a sensibility that has created emotionally moving cars.”
The CX-30’s high quality, human-centric interior combines ergonomic excellence with state-of-the-art technology. The latest developments in Mazda’s Skyactiv-Vehicle Architecture harness people’s inherent balance ability for more natural and intuitive control of the vehicle.
Though retaining the beautiful, hand-crafted forms of Kodo design, the styling of the MX-30 represents an exploration of a more modern aesthetic which focuses on the futuristic values and lifestyles that are beginning to emerge.
“This new approach has resulted in an original design that embodies the expansion of Kodo’s expressive range,” explains Mazda MX-30 Chief Designer Youichi Matsuda. “The exterior is uncompromisingly simple to emphasise its beauty as a solid mass, and the cabin design – with its framed top and freestyle doors – embodies an image of lightness while proactively incorporating sustainability as an element for the interior materials. As we begin an era of great change, we want the Mazda MX-30 to show people that our cars can still deliver pure joy of driving.”
The MX-30, currently only available for the European market, is equipped with e-Skyactiv, Mazda’s new electric drive technology featuring a 35.5kWh lithium ion battery that provides a range of approximately 200km, which far exceeds the 48km average daily drive of European customers.
Both the new EV’s Skyactiv-Vehicle Architecture and its i-Activsense safety technologies have been tailored to perfectly compliment the vehicle’s inherently smooth, quiet, all-electric driving behaviour.
