First look: Mazda sketch shows future Kuga cousin

THE first production-oriented car showing Mazda’s bold new corporate design will be presented at the Moscow International Automobile Salon in August, with sketches revealed this week showing a compact crossover SUV.

Sporting an outer skin drawn from the quintet of radical concepts that began with the Nagare in November 2006 and ended with the Furai in January this year, the still-to-be-named concept is believed to share its underpinnings with Ford’s Kuga compact 4WD.

The Mazda version is being shown in Russia under the theme “crosswinds” and will appear just weeks before the long-anticipated Mazda1 makes its world debut at the Paris auto show in October – another compact car sculpted using the all-embracing “Nagare” design direction (as it is now known) that was also reflected in the Taiki, Hakaze and Ryuga concepts.

Mazda claims the compact crossover SUV was designed “especially for the Russian market” but a wider European and global rollout is anticipated.

Mazda1 production is understood to be commencing in 2010, with this Kuga-based SUV following a similar timetable.

The Moscow motor show media previews will be held on August 26 and 27.