The new Mazda 6 unveiled in Japan

After spending millions of dollars and years of hard work, gazillion litres of Japanese coffee and tons of late night sushi, it looks like the folks at Mazda are all set to introduce the all new, Kodo concept Mazda 6.  For motor heads like me, anticipating its release is like knowing iPhone 5 is coming up for Apple fans …. only Mazda has been building excitement by sending teaser shots and videos showing different curves and silhouettes of the car. Imagine seeing someone sexy/handsome stripping slowly, in partial darkness with just a hint that this is going to be really good.

 

 

 

Mazda introduced the Takeri concept towards the end of last year at the Tokyo Big Sight expo and it completely blew everyone’s mind off. Mazda then announced that the full production car will be revealed at the Moscow Motor Show scheduled to be held from 27 to 30 August 2012.

 

 

Well, it appears Mazda couldn’t resist the temptation of launching the car ahead of schedule in their home market and have just introduced a station wagon version of the Mazda 6

 

 

From this event, the full production design can be clearly seen and we can have some idea on the specifications based on the first Kodo-design vehicle Mazda made: the CX-5

 

 

 

 

 

The Takeri (which is derived from the Japanese word “Male” – Hah, how’s that for being sexist? :P) is an extension of the Kodo “Soul in Motion” design language and sports the new Mazda logo-on-wings front grille. From concept to production, the Mazda 6 seems to retain most of its cues except for a silver lining at the bottom of the grille which I feel makes the front look less adorned (definitely something for owners to add on their own if Mazda does not offer this later on)

 

 

Though this is a estate version, we could see how the sleek the profile is and the 6 will feature a gently sloping roofline and C-pillars and a steeply raked tailgate to give the car a stylish look.

 

 

 

We could see the front headlights will be projector. Question is whether it’s going to be HID or bi-xenon.

 

 

 

At the back, the sedan should look something like this. The station wagon however has its rear looking like this:

 

 

Now, it does not mean that the rear tail lights of the station wagon will be the same as the sedan but they do appear to be very similar.

 

If we are to guess, I’d say at least one of the variants (if there is going to be variants) will have the 2.0litre SkyActiv-G engine that’s also found in the CX-5. If this is accurate, then you’ll get 155hp @ 6,000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 4,000rpm. On the CX-5, acceleration from 0 – 100kph is done in 9.7 seconds. On a sedan, we might be able to touch the century speed in a slightly shorter time but until the official car is launched, everything is just speculation.

 

What’s different from the CX-5 is the Mazda 6 “should”  have a new energy regenerative technology called i-ELOOP. Unlike other regenerative system that uses batteries to store converted kinetic energy, the i-ELOOP has Electric Double Layer Capacitors (EDLC) which needs only 7 seconds of you lifting your foot from the gas pedal and coasting.

 

Here’s a video of how it works:

 

i-ELOOP

 

So if a full tank takes you 500km, you can get an additional 50km (10% improvement) range with this technology. With SkyActiv-Drive which extends the gear lock-up range for seamless gear shifts and the high compression ratio of the SkyActiv-G engine, I won’t be surprised if the new Mazda 6 would have one of the best FC in its segment without compromising on driving dynamics.

 

 

The Mazda 6 will have the full plethora of SkyActiv technology and as such, it’ll get the SkyActiv-Body which is claimed to be lighter and firmer than conventional vehicle body. If you have tested the CX-5 and liked its handling, the Mazda 6 should be a greater bundle of joy to drive since it would have a lower center of gravity.

 

 

There’s no pictures of the production car’s interior but just looking on the outside is enough to get my mouth watering. The new Mazda 6 is scheduled to be available for sale early next year which means we would probably be expecting it in Q2 or Q3 if we’re lucky.

 

 

 

 

For more details of the SkyActiv technologies, please read the earlier article about the CX-5:

 

http://www.kensomuse.com/the-new-mazda-cx-5-a-truly-new-new-car-2/