New Mazda CX-3 on its way to smite the small SUV elite
After a lengthy absence from showrooms, Mazda’s small SUV is set for a dramatic return, with styling likely to be inspired by 2025’s Vision X Concept
A brand new Mazda CX-3 is officially in the works, giving the Japanese brand a much needed challenger in the wildly competitive B-segment SUV class here in Europe.
Many of the UK’s highest selling cars, such as the Ford Puma and Nissan Juke, are small SUVs, and it’s an area of the market that Mazda has been absent from since the first-generation CX-3 was taken off-sale back in 2021.
Buried away within the company’s mid-year financial report, news of the model came alongside confirmation that this will be a fully home-grown Mazda, rather than one built in collaboration with an automotive partner as is the case with the Mazda 6e and CX-6e, which are the result of a joint venture with China’s Changan.
This means that it’ll feature a range of combustion powertrains, possibly including a new hybrid option that we know is already in development. It also suggests that the car may be front-wheel drive only, and could even include a six-speed manual gearbox on non-hybridised models.
Much like the all-new CX-5, we expect the smaller CX-3 to be one of the more capable cars in its class in terms of driving dynamics. We also expect to see the next generation of Mazda’s latest interior design language, as well as fresh digital interfaces and updated safety technology.
What will really set the new CX-3 apart from most of its competition, though, is the design, which could draw inspiration from the Mazda Vision X Concept revealed at last year’s Japan Mobility Show. A dark silhouette featured in Mazda’s financial report gives very little away, but we suspect that many of the concept’s new design elements, such as the fared-in front grille, could be seen on the production model.
The new CX-3 will be a critical model for the brand, both here in Europe and in its larger global markets. As well as sitting alongside the Mazda 2 hybrid supermini, which nowadays is just a rebadged Toyota Yaris, it will give Mazda a distinctive new entrant into one of the industry’s most important sectors, where it will be up against a whole host of cars from legacy brands, as well as a range of cheaper – and larger – Chinese models.
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