Mazda Hakaze is a compact crossover coupe with roadster feel, thanks to its roof which is partially removable.

it is agile and fun to drive like a compact hatchback, and it has a high hip point and interior functionality like a compact SUV.

Hakaze concept comes after last year "trilogy" of concept vehicles and the more recent Nagare and Ryuga design studies, that started a new nature-inspired formal language based on flowing lines.

The exterior expresses this “flow” with sand-dune like surface iteration, and combines these with shapes from machines that move through water or air.

On the inside, it boasts “flowing” Nagare forms, natural surfaces and insightful functionality to meet the demands of adventurous lifestyles.

“Nagare is expressed in the Mazda Hakaze, not only in the iteration on the side of the car, but also in a lot of the details,” says Peter Birtwhistle, Chief Designer, Mazda Motor Europe.

”If you look at things like the execution of the wheel design, the spokes have a nice flow in terms of the way they move, the way the surfaces move, the way they integrate into the tyre design.

”The interior too. The basic form of the interior is like looking at sand dunes. It’s got all this movement, winds blowing. I find that inspirational in terms of trying to find a new way of expressing design. Of course, you have to think about functionality. But Mazda is all about emotion. And this is emotion.”

Exterior Design

In Japanese, the word Hakaze (pronounced Hah-kah-zay) comes from “ha” for “leaf” and “kaze” which means “wind,” a fitting combination for a vehicle that looks like it is effortlessly cutting through the air while standing still.

Mazda Hakaze has very compact proportions. At 4,420 mm, it is roughly the same length (+15 mm) as the Mazda3 hatchback – which ensures agile, sporty handling – but is wider (1,890 mm, + 135 mm), and taller (1,560 mm, + 95 mm) with a high seating position, a very large glass area and large suspension travel - all attributes usually associated with a C-segment SUV.

This insightful package is clothed in a modernistic body work with no door handles and no mirrors – exterior cameras replace these –very compact proportions and flowing major feature lines and side textures that create a muscular and taught look.

Mazda Hakaze has no B-pillar either and the rear two-thirds of the glass roof can be taken off in two parts and stored in a slide-out compartment in the rear bumper.

Lowering the car’s four frameless windows then converts the concept into a fun to drive, four-seat coupe with roadster feel.

Mazda Hakaze’s exterior design was a cooperative effort from the same successful duo that designed the Mazda Sassou, presented at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show: Mickael Loyer, whose design was selected this time for the final proposal, assisted by Luca Zollino.

”The design team took inspiration from sports and outdoor activities in the wind or in the water giving the sensation of being free and allows us to break boundaries,” says Mickael Loyer, ”like kite-surfing, flying, diving, driving a jet-ski or a motorbike.

We were looking for shapes moulded by natural elements, and how the wind shapes the sand is a key element in the exterior design of this concept.”

At the front, they pushed forward the design idea of the Mazda Sassou - with a large grille design that has chevron-shaped front indicators and headlights –to which they added Nagare flow lines.

At the rear of the car, a unique illumination system is used with light flowing directly into the lower part of the rear window. Because the rear lights have flowing shapes integrated into the design here, this creates an impression of floating light.

Mazda Hakaze’s silhouette features Nagare flow lines at the front of the door panel, with a visual link to the front of the car created by a line falling over the top of the front wheel well and into the side panel.

These are combined with a rising beltline extended into the hatchback door, a steeply angled windshield similar to Mazda’s crossover SUV CX-7 and a roof line that gives Hakaze a modern body shape that integrates the strong look of a Samurai sword when seen from the side. 

All the concept’s Nagare flow lines combine to visualize movement by making it seem as if the wind itself has etched natural flow lines into the car´s surface.

Even when parked, Mazda Hakaze looks as if it is moving - as if wind is blowing over the front wheel wells, down and along the side panels and across the bottom of the rear window. ì

Mazda Hakaze not only took its inspiration from Nagare  natural flow, but also from technological objects like helicopters, speed boats, jetfighters.

These are strongly related to flow and examples of human interface to fast movement through natural elements. The design team combined these kinds of forms with shapes directly moulded by flow in sand and water. Examples of this are Hakaze’s glass roof cockpit and its 20-inch wheel design.

The wheels use a mixture of forms inspired by sand dunes and propeller shapes to express flow and movement –including extensions of the spoke design into the tyre rubber bordering the wheel  – and adds a three-dimensional depth to lend Mazda’s new show car a modern sophistication. 

“The Hakaze is an agile yet tough coupe that takes you wherever you want to go,” says Luca Zollino.

“Its design is also unique because of the unconventional shape of its hatch. The continuity of the beltline through the hatch allows us to close all the volumes above it: this together with a very angled and long windscreen enhances the compactness of its proportions.”