The Vision Coupe was introduced in 2017.
It was built on Mazda’s RWD premium platform.
It was also meant as the flagship vehicle sporting Mazda’s new Kodo design language.
We were in Tokyo when Mazda unwrapped the Vision Coupe at a special event ahead of that year’s Tokyo Motor Show. To say it took our collective breath away is not a strong enough statement to describe how dazzling the car was. Unfortunately, it’ll never see the light of day.
The Vision Coupe was the follow-up to the RX Vision which surfaced in 2015. By all accounts, Mazda was preparing a very attractive highly-stylized car for production but sadly, the business case, which includes making money, has killed the project.
In a discussion with Autocar, Mazda Europe’s Joachim Kunz said: “This SUV trend is continuing, and even more for Mazda. It’s what’s selling best. It would be very nice… to have the FR [front-engine, rear-driven] concept and six-cylinder engine for a Mazda 6 successor or a large sports coupé. We would like to have it, but at this point in time, it’s most important to sell SUVs.”
And these SUVs are the latest CX-50 and the CX-60, and there are more to come. Not all is lost, in a way, as both Vision concepts did help influence the Kia Concept which did spawn the current Mazda3, hands-down the most beautiful and elegant compact car on the market today.
