The ‘new’ Mazda 2 Hybrid looks suspiciously like a Toyota

“Mazda’s design team are on fire right now.” That’s us pretty much every time a new Mazda is unveiled. And yet, it looks as though the design team had no idea the new 2 Hybrid was even happening…

If you’re reading this and you work in Mazda’s design department, we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news. Someone in a boardroom somewhere has whipped the badges off the current Toyota Yaris and replaced them with Mazda items, proclaiming this a new car and the “result of collaboration between Mazda Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation”. We doubt they were even wearing a turtle neck jumper at the time.

Mazda has form with its city cars, of course. Old 121s were based on the Ford Festiva/Kia Pride and the fourth generation Ford Fiesta, but at least they had slightly different faces to the cars they were based on. There’s not much of that KODO design language going on here, is there? It's not like Toyota is immune either, in the US the old Yaris was a rebadged Mazda 2.

In another slightly strange move, the 2 Hybrid will be sold alongside the facelifted 2 in the UK. The stats are as follows – a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine is connected to a small battery and a 78bhp electric motor for a total system output of 114bhp. There’s an e-CVT gearbox and like the Yaris, 0-62mph comes up in 9.7 seconds. Using Toyota’s hybrid setup means Mazda can also claim around 70mpg and CO2 emissions of between 87 and 93g/km.

Hey, at least they managed to change the floor mats.