Mazda's theme at this year's Tokyo Motor Show was "Environmental Technology, Pushing the Boundaries of the Emotion of Motion," and the TAKERI concept making its world debut at the show integrates a number of environmentally friendly technologies that fall under the company's SKYACTIV banner. The car also reflects the KODO design language ushered in by the SHINARI and MINAGI concept cars, which will serve as a blueprint for Mazda's future vehicles.
With 80 percent of its passenger vehicles set to employ SKYACTIV technology by 2015 as part of its goal of a 30 percent improvement in the global average fuel economy for its vehicles by 2015, the TAKERI sports a SKYACTIV-D diesel engine and is also the first car to feature the company's new i-ELOOP regenerative braking system.
The KODO design language employed on the TAKERI updates Mazda's previous NAGARE (Japanese for "flow") design language, which was introduced at the 2006 Los Angeles Auto Show and appeared in four concept vehicles but only made it to one production car - the Mazda 5. KODO seeks to retain the smooth wave-like lines of NAGARE but in a more compressed, dynamic form.
Mazda says the environmental performance and design of the TAKERI points to the direction a new generation sedan will take, which we can take to refer to the next Mazda6.