Mazda looks set to have a pop at the Land Rover Discovery Sport. The Japanese company will use next month’s Frankfurt show to unveil the Koeru concept, a rakish SUV which, despite looking more like a futuristic GT, is in fact a seven-seat family crossover.
Koeru means ‘go beyond’ – and the idea seems is that this new model will do just that, taking Mazda into territory not yet explored by the comparatively conservative CX-3 and CX-5.
In production, there’s no reason why Mazda would stray from using its latest SkyActiv engines. The largest of these in the CX-5, a 2.2-litre diesel, seems ideal for this new, bigger vehicle.
Mazda says the concept is ‘a bold statement in an increasingly popular and competitive segment.’ Launching something that looks even a little bit like the sketch you see here really would be bold; a production version is by no means a given, but if it does get the green light you can expect it to be more of an evolution on Mazda’s current design language.