PRESS RELEASE:
World Debut for All-New Mazda3 Five-Door Hatchback at the 2008 Bologna Motor Show

HIROSHIMA, Japan: Mazda Motor Corporation will hold the world premiere of the new-generation Mazda3 five-door hatchback at the Bologna Motor Show on December 3, 2008.

The second generation Mazda3 five-door hatchback follows on the heels of the four-door sedan revealed at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

The new-generation Mazda3 five-door hatchback adopts the same characteristics as its sedan counterpart, offering sporty driving and a dynamic design, together with top class environmental and safety performance.

Environmental-friendly qualities were top of mind during development, including efficient powertrains, Mazda typical lightweight engineering and amongst the best-in-class aerodynamics.

All petrol engine versions of the new-generation Mazda3 will offer even further advanced environmental performance, including the world's first vehicle catalyst to be constructed with single nanotechnology. This new development enables Mazda to reduce its use of scarce resources such as platinum and palladium.

The new engine lineup has been tailored for European customers and now includes the newly developed 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine, just launched in the Mazda6. The new 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine is a high-performance clean diesel powerplant with top class output, fuel economy and refinement.

This new-generation diesel engine has outstanding emissions performance and complies with Euro Stage5 regulations. Fuel economy and CO2 emissions are also greatly improved compared to the current 2.0-litre version.

The all-new Mazda3 five-door hatchback will be revealed during Mazda's press conference at 09:00am on December 3, 2008 (local time).

Mazda has officially taken the wraps off its five-door hatchback version of the redesigned Mazda3 at the Bologna Motor Show today. As you can see in the gallery of new high-res pics below, the Mazda3 five-door gets the same swoopy sheetmetal as its four-door brethren, including the super happy smiley front end face. What's new is an extended roofline that drops down at a steep angle to create a wagon-esque profile. With a D-pillar that kinks up at a swept back angle, the look is very similar to that of a Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix that's been stepped on by a giant. The new cargo capacity will no doubt be appreciated by families who can put every extra cubic foot to good use, and if the current generation Mazda3 is any indication, this will also be the basis for the Mazdaspeed model.

At the moment, all the specs for the new Mazda3 five-door hatchback are for the European market, so don't expect its new 2.2L and carryover 1.6L turbo diesel engines to be available in the U.S. Europeans will also have a choice of 1.6L and 2.0L gas engines, though we expect the U.S.-spec model to offer the same 2.0L and new 2.5L four-cylinder engines as the sedan. Check out the official press release from Mazda after the jump for more details and the high-res image gallery below for more shots of the new Mazda3 five-door hatchback.

Mazda6 program manager Ryuichi Umeshita points out that the next 6 will be larger in the US than in other regions, which means Mazda would be paying for two different development programs. Any Speed6 would play for a smaller audience too, since the US edition would need different tuning than Europe/Australia and vice-versa. In the end, Umeshita basically said that he doesn't see big enough potential demand to make a Speed edition worth Mazda's time and money.