Like most people, I love concept cars. I love looking at cars that are designed purely for the aesthetics. Cars that look the way they do because the designer just wanted certain lines to interact a certain way. Real-life distractions like safety regulations and crash test ratings and proper aerodynamics often aren’t a concern.
The Mazda Vision Concept, first shown at the Tokyo Motor Show earlier this year, stood out in my memory like a beautiful, gleaming metallic fish. Sleek. Sophisticated. Realistic in its appearance to what a real-life application could look like. And then Mazda bought it to Los Angeles for the LA Auto Show, so, naturally, I had to take a closer look in person.
Mazda’s global head of design from Japan, Ikuo Maeda, and director of design for Mazda North America, Julien Montousse, gave us a walk-around of the pretty thing, discussing their inspiration and their favorite parts of the design. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to open the concept’s doors and peek inside, so we weren’t able to get a close look at the screen-free interior, but the outside was just as stunning.