Mazda Wins 2020 Red Dot Design Awards For CX-30 and MX-30
Mazda is now synonymous with making good looking vehicles so it is no surprise that it continues to gain recognition in this respect. Both the Mazda CX-30 and MX-30 have been recognised in the Red Dot Design Awards 2020 (naturally) for product design. This is not the first time Mazda has won awards for product design.
In fact, these are the eighth and ninth Red Dot awards won by Mazda’s models to-date, all of them born from the brand’s Kodo: Soul of Motion philosophy. The previous winners are the Mazda3 in 2019, MX-5 RF in 2017, MX-5 soft top, CX-3 and Mazda2 (all 2015), the previous generation Mazda3 (2014) and Mazda6 (2013). The Red Dot Design Awards, started in 1955, is one of the world’s largest and most recognised design competitions.
The new Mazda CX-30 is the second production model, after the Mazda3, created with the latest evolution of the Kodo design philosophy – artful design and rooted in traditional Japanese aesthetics. The honing of every element according to the ‘less is more’ principle has resulted in clean, beautiful surfaces on the CX-30 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 Mazda 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 Mazda MX-30, its first all-electric vehicle, 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 Mazda MX-30 is currently only available for the European market. It is equipped with e-Skyactiv, Mazda’s new electric drive technology, and features a 35.5 kWh lithium ion battery enabling the MX-30 to cover a distance of approximately 200 km. The driving range of approximately 200 km far exceeds the 48 km 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 complement the vehicle’s inherently smooth, quiet, all-electric driving behaviour.
