Mazda Nagare

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Under the direction of Mazda’s new global design director, Laurens van den Acker, the challenge given to the team was to invent a novel means of registering motion in vehicles whether they’re moving or still. Nagare achieves that goal while also signaling a fresh design direction for future Mazda vehicles.

Nagare is the first of a series of design concepts – some closer to actual production vehicles than others – that Mazda will showcase this global autoshow season, including Los Angeles, Detroit, Geneva and Tokyo. Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda North American Operations’ (MNAO) Director of Design, and the man responsible for leading the US-based design team which developed this vehicle, explains, „We’re looking well down the road with Nagare. We want to suggest where Mazda design will be in 2020. To do that, we redefined basic proportions and the idea of driving without losing the emotional involvement. Mazda’s driving spirit will be enhanced and intensified by Nagare.

„Mazda doesn’t produce concept cars to spin its wheels, and while some are more forward-looking than others, we simply do not create pure flights of fantasy. We develop these ideas to demonstrate what we really intend to build and sell. It took soul-searching along with basic research to invent the new surface language we’re calling Nagare. The dynamic qualities of Mazda products already do an excellent job of capturing the spirit of motion so our goal was to move our design language a major step beyond what we’ve already demonstrated with Sassou, Senku, and Kabura.

 Mazda Nagare at 2006 LA International Auto Show