As expected, following the teaser images of the 2013 Mazda6 sedan in July, the Japanese company has announced details and released a gallery of images for their new mid-sized sedan.
Currently on display at the Moscow Motor Show, the new 2013 Mazda6 is not quite as exciting to look at as the Takeri concept that Mazda dangled in front of us, but the new 6 does follow the tone set by the recently launched CX-5 crossover, with its SkyActiv suit of technologies and curvy Kodo design language. At the same time, the Mazda6 is the manufacturer’s first vehicle to use a new brake energy recuperation system, which it calls ‘i-Eloop’. The system uses a capacitor to store the car’s kinetic energy when the driver releases the accelerator and then distributes that electrical energy to the car’s electronics.
The new Mazda6 is 4 865 mm long, 1 840 mm wide and, overall, it looks to have retained the proportions of the Takeri concept upon which it was inspired. Mazda say the increased dimensions over the 2nd generation car translate to improved rear leg room and shoulder space of 37 mm and 20 mm respectively. The boot has a 32 mm wider opening than before and has a capacity of 483-litres. The interior is by-and-large a copy of the CX-5′s and offers a ‘driver-orientated’ dashboard layout, with soft-touch materials for the door trims and the upper part of the dashboard panel, as well as a few glossy trim inserts.
The SkyActiv bodyshell is lighter, 30 percent stiffer than the 2nd generation Mazda6 and rides on MacPherson struts up front and a multi-link suspension setup at the rear. Mazda claim their new Mazda6 will be a driver’s car. “In developing the third-generation Mazda6, we pursued Mazda’s intrinsic core value: ‘driving pleasure’,” says Hiroshi Kajiyama, the new Mazda6 programme manager. “We wanted to create a car that reacts and behaves exactly as you expect it to. Part of this involved carefully crafting those parts of the car which you often touch to feel as though they are an extension of your own body.”
Details of two new petrol engines have been announced for the car’s launch in the Russian market. A SkyActive-G, 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder, engine offers 110 kW at 6 000 r/min and 210 Nm of torque at 4 000 r/min. The larger 2.5-litre engine produces 141 kW at 5 700 r/min and 265 Nm of torque at 3 250 r/min. Both engines are available with either a 6-speed manual or automatic transmission, as well as Mazda’s i-Stop engine stop/start system.
The European specification version of the Mazda6 sedan, as well as the Estate version that was spied last month, will debut at the Paris Motor Show in late September. We expect the Paris debut to bring with it more details of the powertrains and the new SkyActiv-D diesel engine.
