Mazda admits it is definitely going after cashed-up customers who would have bought German cars, or a Lexus, in the past with its new CX-60 SUV, but the company never considered creating a separate, premium brand, as Hyundai has recently done with Genesis.
Speaking to CarsGuide at Mazda HQ in Hiroshima, the chief designer of the CX-60, Akira Tamatani, admitted that Lexus was one brand he considered a competitor when working on the all-new, rear-wheel-drive platform SUV, with its inline six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines (plus a PHEV option), but he said the goal was not to tackle the higher-priced brands head on.
“Rather than competing direct against premium brands what we want to do is to gradually elevate the entire Mazda brand itself, step by step, and the CX-60, as the first example of our new large platform vehicle, is an example of that,” Tamatani said.
“We’re not going totally upscale and creating an entirely different brand name for the CX-60 (as Toyota has done with Lexus), that’s just not something we are intending to do.”
Instead, the goal of the CX-60 is to stop Mazda bleeding off its own customers once they get to a point in their car-buying lives where they have more money and want a vehicle that looks and feels more premium, as well as attracting new buyers to the brand that might not previously have considered a Japanese car.
“The idea of the CX-60 was 50 per cent to get customers who don’t own a Mazda right now, and 50 per cent for people who are Mazda customers, but who want something more premium than the company already offered,” Tamatani added.
To achieve that goal, Tamatani was challenged to come up with a car that looks and feels, inside and out, a level above anything Mazda has ever done before. It’s also an important move to justify the kind of prices Mazda Australia is going to charge for the CX-60, which tops out at $87,252 for the Azami plug-in hybrid variant.
In terms of the exterior design, which Tamatani said he found extremely challenging because the CX-60 is “so tall and so thick”, the aim was to create a car that represents a sense of premium with a uniquely “Japanese sensibility”.
Tamatani defines that as “the idea of less is more, of only using what is necessary and leaving out everything else” as well as the harmonious use of materials. He admits this is a very different sense of Japaneseness to the crease and line heavy approach of his competitors at Lexus.
“I thought about applying typical Mazda design (to the CX-60), but Mazda’s typically have a sharp, thin face and I wanted to give an expression of grace on an imposing SUV design, so I decided to give it vertical bars and to give it a handsome face at the same time,” he explained.
“The same applies to the rear face, where I created a new graphic in which I tried to express the pupil of the eye with the rear lights. At the same time I applied a horizontal and wider appearance for the rear, which is more mature.
“It was difficult to successfully put the rear and the front together to match the proportions of a large car like the CX-60.”
In terms of the interior, Mazda has borrowed a very Lexus term, “Takumi”, which relates to Japanese craftsmanship, but applied it to its own favourite phrase “Jinba-Ittai”, meaning “horse and rider as one”.
“To express the oneness between car and driver we focused on using knots – in ancient Japan, various knots were used in horse riding, and in the CX-60 you can see knotting, in the shape of interlocking stitching, visible on the dash,” Tamatani enthused.
“The interior of the car represents the beauty of Japanese tradition with the added personal warmth of craftsmanship.”
Keyword: Not a Genesis or Lexus clone! 2023 Mazda CX-60 will target premium buyers from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and more, but don't expect a return of the Eunos brand!