Paris show: Mazda Kiyora

The Mazda Kiyora concept has been unveiled for the first time to the public at the Paris show. It’s a small city car that’s expected to make production as the Mazda 1.

The concept Kiyora’s outlandish styling has been inspired by the same Nagare design philosophy that was used to create the stunning Mazda Furai racer.

“We want to see how the Kiyora is accepted before we finalise it.” Laurens Van den Acker, Mazda’s chief designer told Autocar. He revealed he was still unsure about the final size and shape of the car, adding: “I wonder if we shouldn’t go smaller, but even if we do it must always be a desirable car.”

The Kiyora concept adopts a unique interior layout, with two full-sized seats in the front, and two unconventional fabric seats in the back. These are stretched flat normally to save space, but flex into position when passengers sit on them. This quirky set-up allows for more luggage space in the back when there are no rear occupants.

Glass windows around the floor of the Kiyora give passengers a unique view out, and on the outside the Kiyora – whose design is inspired by the flow of water –looks sleek and aggressively sculpted.

“We want to appeal to a broad range of people, and to move away from the cute, bubbly superminis that you see a lot of today,” reveals Van den Acker.

Few of the Kiyora’s eccentric concept car touches are likely to make production, but there’s plenty of technology that will.

This includes a direct-injection 1.3-litre engine fitted with the company’s new ‘SSIS’ stop-start system, likely to be first fitted to Mazda's forthcoming new city car.