New Mazda 6 Vision Concept Turns Heads In Anticipation For 2022 Release
The Mazda 6 is not usually a car we associate with high-end luxury – don’t get me wrong, it’s a great car but it sits better next to a VW Passat than a Mercedes S Class. That was the case, until we saw the Mazda 6 Vision Concept, with its slick exterior design and incredibly refined and elegant cabin. Hopefully, this new design and direction for the Japanese brand will help reinvent itself somewhat – sales have been on a downward trend for some years now with sales in the USA dropping a worrying 30.4% (21,524 units) in 2019.
Got a Mazda 6 and thinking, ‘looks a bit different but it’ll essentially be the same’? Wrong. Forget everything you know about your current ‘Zoom Zoom’ Mazda because the new model will be completely different and here at Grand Tour Nation we believe this to be for the best. First off, it is rumoured that Mazda will be ditching the front-wheel-drive in favour of rear-wheel-drive architecture. Car and Driver and Japanese Magazine, Best Car, both seem to have the inside scoop on the direction the new sedan will take.
Both publications state that as well as the RWD layout, the car will be utilising inline-six power following an announcement made by Mazda last year about developing a new SkyActiv-X inline-six – as mentioned in Mazda’s ‘Fiscal Year March 2019 Financial Results‘ (page 26 to be exact) – the document also reveals that Mazda is developing two new engines, one being tailored for their bigger cars with a longitudinal engine layout, with support for mild-hybrid technology, as well as plug-in hybrid powertrains.
Best Car also states in its article that the new Mazda 6’s straight-six engine could produce a whopping 350hp and also rumours that the new vehicle could sit on a platform co-developed with Toyota to spread out costs and ultimately speed up development but as is life with rumours – this is by no means official… yet.
Now for the news that we are most excited about and that is the belief that the new Mazda 6 sedan will come with a coupe version to boot. The two-door sedan version could look just as great (dare I say it, maybe even better), as shown by the Vision Concept image below.
The Mazda 6 is expected to go on sale towards the end of 2022 and is expected to catapult Mazda into an upmarket player, taking on luxury rivals such as BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar to name a few. It’s also likely the coupe version will arrive at a later date. As always we’ll keep you updated as any developments occur, but it’s safe to say we are really excited for this one.
