The Mazda3 won the 2020 World Car Design of the Year award, one of the special awards of the World Car Awards (WCA). The Mazda3 is the second to be named World Car Design of the Year, following the Mazda MX-5 winning the award in 2016.
David Hodge, Managing Director Mazda New Zealand, is thrilled with the Award and says it is appropriate the company has received the award in the year Mazda is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
“The Award celebrates the continuing ability of the Mazda designers and engineers to design and build outstanding vehicles.
“The stunning design and premium finish of the Mazda3 hatch and sedan has also really struck a chord with New Zealanders who enjoy the thrill of driving a car rather than an SUV.”
The WCA was established in 2004 by an international group of automotive journalists, and the judging panel this year consisted of 86 journalists from over 25 different countries. The final result was announced by the WCA in Toronto on April 8 local time.
In pursuit of Mazda’s design philosophy, Car as Art, the Mazda3 adopts a matured Kodo design, which has received recognition all over the world. Taking inspiration from Japanese aesthetics, Mazda adopted a “less is more” approach when designing the Mazda3 and stripped away superfluous elements from the car’s form. The result is a unique design that creates subtle undulations of light and shadows gliding over the car’s smooth body, giving birth to a natural and powerful expression of vitality. Furthermore, despite sharing the same model name, the hatchback and sedan models have distinct personalities—the design of the hatchback is emotive, the sedan elegant.
Mazda marks one hundred years of existence this year, during which we have always built cars that provide driving pleasure with the aim to brighten people’s lives in any era. Following on for the next century, we will continue to take on challenges to create unique products, designs, technologies and customer experiences, hoping to offer something special that our car-loving customers will want to treasure and hold onto for as long as possible.
