Mazda's Quest for Cool

Under design director Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda has unveiled a steady stream of sexy concepts. But the effort has yet to translate into any actual products

by Matt Vella

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Seven men in white lab coats are scraping the sides of a life-size car model, rapidly transforming a massive lump of clay into a sleek form with the silhouette of a sporty coupe. Thin shavings fall to the floor as the designers mold shapes to resemble those of the giant sketch of the car hanging above them on the wall. All the while, Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda's (MZDAF) tall, tow-headed director of design for North America, is watching intently.

But Holzhausen isn't supervising designers at the company's hush-hush research and development facility in Irvine, Calif. Instead, the project is unfolding publicly at a dramatic pace on the floor of the Los Angeles Auto Show—almost like a theatrical performance. The normally tightly controlled, top-secret process of creating a full-scale show concept is, for the first time, on display for the dozens of spectators crowded into the booth.

The unusual spectacle is Holzhausen's latest attempt to put design front and center of the Mazda brand. Since taking the reins of the company's North American design unit in February, 2005, he has forged a unique strategy, emphasizing slick concepts rather than real-life products to establish a new, sporty, and ultra-stylish image for the Japanese carmaker. Attempting to bolster its reputation as a maker of fun-to-drive vehicles such as the Miata roadster, Mazda has shown attention-grabbing and award-winning concept cars at major auto shows in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Tokyo at a faster pace than any other manufacturer since early 2006.

Holzhausen's concepts—with Japanese names like Ryuga, Kazai, and Taiki—all share his Nagare design philosophy, which highlights sleek, low-slung, sports-car qualities. A Japanese word that translates roughly as "flow," Nagare is intended to produce cars with organic lines that give the impression of motion. And according to some analysts, Holzhausen could be using the series of clay models to lay the groundwork for a major shift in design for production models too.

Speeding Up Lagging Design

In the past few years Mazda's financial footing has remained solid. So far this year sales are up about 10% in the U.S. And in March, based on record worldwide profitability, the company outlined an ambitious new growth plan that would see sales rise to 1.6 million cars a year globally, increasing its annual operating profits to $1.7 billion by 2011. Wanting to ensure that design played a key role in this expansion, Holzhausen left General Motors (GM), where he had spent five years as a design manager and where he was responsible for well-received, low-volume sports cars such as the Pontiac Solstice and the Saturn Sky. At Mazda, by contrast, he works on a rapidly expanding lineup that includes everything from micro-hatchbacks to full-size crossovers.

On arrival at Mazda, Holzhausen immediately set out to gain attention. He rapidly released a series of concepts to help establish Mazda—which sells far fewer vehicles in the U.S. than either Toyota (TM) or Honda (HMC)—as a forward-thinking brand. The tactic worked. The vehicles, which each take between six months and a year to make, have generated a great deal of industry enthusiasm, often becoming the talk of the auto shows where they are introduced and landing on the cover of popular consumer car magazines like Car and Driver. The Kabura design won the venerated Aesthetics & Innovation Award at the January, 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

What really sets Mazda's concept vehicles apart from those shown by other manufacturers is that they aren't intended to preview future production models. Instead, the designs are meant to influence, but not dictate, the look of future Mazda vehicles.