Mazda expecting cordial reception for Kiyora concept

Mazda has developed the Kiyora concept vehicle to provide a realistic look at the way the Japanese company will develop products to meet future targets for emissions and fuel consumption.

The company -- committed as it is to reducing the average fuel consumption of its products by 30 per cent between now and 2015 -- will introduce new technological features such as 'Smart Idle-Stop System' (SISS), direct-injection petrol engines and clean diesels, as well as reducing vehicle weight where possible.

To demonstrate this, Mazda has built the Kiyora with an extremely rigid carbonfibre body structure and fitted a 1.3-litre direct-injection petrol engine coupled to a six-speed automatic transmission. The company estimates that the Kiyora will emit as few as 90g/km of CO2 emissions.

Kiyora -- the Japanese word for 'clean and pure' -- was adopted for its associations with water, a subject that Mazda wished to link to the concept car in accordance with the 'Nagare' (flow) theme, explored in previous concept cars. This is, according to Mazda, the first concept based around the flow of water, rather than air.

Mazda has embodied this theme in the exterior design -- which resembles a drop of water in its overall style -- and even the instrument panel, which employs what Mazda terms 'Liquid-Skin Display'. With the power off, the instrument panel looks like frozen water, but the ice 'thaws' once the display is powered up.

"We call Kiyora's IP a liquid-skin display," said Mazda's Gregory Vera, who designed the interior, "because it is conceived to ripple like water when you touch it".

"Icons bounce off each other as if they are floating in water. This would be a logical next step in intuitive-feedback, flexible-screen displays and is a natural and easy way to operate the systems of a car."

Touch-screen users can also control a hard-disk drive system that stores environmental information for retrieval by the user: information such as the amount of fuel used and CO2 emissions from the car over the course of a particular day. The system can even display toxins filtered out of the air by the car.

The car's design is intended to appeal to young European urban-dwellers for its styling, packaging and practicality as much as its high efficiency. With the ability to accommodate two adults and two kids or two adults and luggage, the Kiyora is effectively Mazda's response to the Toyota iQ (more here).

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