The next-generation Mazda3 is expected to launch at November’s Los Angeles Auto Show and should premiere with a bold new look and vastly improved tech.
Auto Express reports that Mazda will look to push the hatchback up market so it can be considered a serious alternative to the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Audi A3. As such, customers can expect to see vastly improved interior trimmings.
However, it won’t be the cabin where the real changes are present. Instead, the presence of Mazda’s all-new SkyActiv Vehicle Architecture will allow for a range of new powertrain technologies. Most significantly, the new Mazda3 will receive the brand’s SkyActiv-X petrol engine featuring Spark Controlled Compression Ignition.
This engine ignites the fuel-air mixture similar to a diesel engine and promises to combine the fuel efficiency of a diesel engine with all the benefits of a petrol. Aided by a supercharger, this engine should produce roughly 187 hp and 230 Nm of torque. Elsewhere, the hatch will be sold with a cheaper SkyActiv-G petrol and a SkyActiv-D diesel option.
Mazda will also ensure the new 3 looks far more impressive than the vehicle it replaces. The hatchback will receive design traits from the stunning KAI Concept.
“We have a recent history of not just producing concepts for concepts’ sake,” Mazda Europe design director Kevin Rice recently said. “So yes, manufacturing tolerances and techniques have been incorporated into this project since the very beginning.”
Note: Mazda KAI Concept pictured