Mazda: History, Landmark Models and Today's Range

Mazda at a glance

Mazda is a Japanese carmaker based in Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, best known for rotary engines, the MX-5 and its Skyactiv technology. Key facts as of October 2026:

1920–1945: from cork to three-wheel trucks

Mazda's first business had nothing to do with cars. Toyo Cork Kogyo was set up in Hiroshima on 30 January 1920 to make a substitute for cork, with Jujiro Matsuda at its head. It was renamed Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. in 1927 and, according to company histories, was saved from bankruptcy in the late 1920s by the Hiroshima Saving Bank and local business leaders.

Vehicle production started in 1931 with the Mazda-Go, a three-wheel truck of the auto-rickshaw type. The Mazda name was used on these trucks from the start. It joins Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian god of wisdom, with the founder's family name, which in Japanese sounds close to "Mazda". The first registered corporate logo is dated to 1936. The company itself kept the Toyo Kogyo name until 1984, when it became Mazda Motor Corporation, so for half a century the cars carried a different name from the firm that built them.

During the Second World War Toyo Kogyo, like most of Japanese heavy industry, was turned over to military production.

1945–1960s: three-wheelers, the R360 and the Familia

After the war Mazda kept building three-wheelers and then moved into small cars. The K360 three-wheel light truck alone sold about 280,000 units before it was dropped in 1969.

The first passenger car was the R360 Coupe of May 1960, a kei car with a 356 cc air-cooled V-twin at the rear, rated at 12 kW (16 PS). In total 65,737 are usually counted. The four-seat Carol followed in 1962 as a rival to the Subaru 360.

The Familia arrived in October 1963, first as the Familia 800 van, styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone. Sold abroad as the 323 and in North America as the GLC, it reached about five million by November 1986 and ran until 2 October 2003, when the Mazda3 replaced it.

North American sales began with Mazda Canada in 1968, which started with the rotary-engined R100 coupé; formal sales in the United States followed in 1970.

The rotary gamble: Wankel, Cosmo Sport and the RX cars

The rotary engine became Mazda's identity because the company kept it in production cars for 45 years, from 1967 to 2012. Toyo Kogyo took a licence for the Wankel rotary in 1961, working with the German maker NSU, and showed its first rotary engine at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1963.

Instead of pistons, a triangular rotor turns inside an oval-like housing, giving a small, light and smooth engine. Its weak points (rotor-tip sealing, fuel consumption and emissions) shaped its whole history at Mazda.

The Cosmo Sport 110S was shown as a prototype in Tokyo in 1964 and entered full production in May 1967. It was one of the first production cars with a two-rotor Wankel: the 982 cc engine was rated at about 82 kW (110 hp). Only 1,176 were built. The rotary then spread to everyday models such as the R100, RX-2 and RX-3.

The 1973 oil crisis hit a company that had bet on a thirsty engine. After a large loss in 1975 Toyo Kogyo was saved by the Sumitomo group, with Sumitomo Bank, suppliers and dealers stepping in, and the rotary moved towards sports cars.

That decision produced the Mazda RX-7, built from 1978 to 2002 in three generations, 811,634 cars in all. The first generation, sold in Japan as the Savanna RX-7, used the 1,146 cc 12A engine with 96 kW (130 PS) in Japanese trim. The second (FC, 1985–1992) added a turbocharged 13B, and the third (FD) used the twin-turbo 13B-REW, rated at 188 kW (255 PS) at first and later at 206 kW (280 PS).

Ford years and global growth

Ford was Mazda's largest shareholder from 1979 until the late 2000s. The two companies began working together in 1974, and in 1979 Ford took a 24.5% stake. In the mid-1990s it raised the stake to 33.4% and gained effective control; sources disagree on whether this was 1995 or 1996. In 1996 Henry Wallace became the company's first foreign-born president.

The Ford years brought joint plants at Flat Rock, Michigan in the 1990s and AutoAlliance in Thailand from 1998. The Millenia saloon of 1995 was the first car with a Miller-cycle engine, a principle later reused in Skyactiv.

The link weakened during the financial crisis. Ford cut its holding to 13.4% in November 2008, sold more shares in November 2010 and sold the last of them on 30 September 2015.

MX-5 and the 1991 Le Mans win

The MX-5 and the 787B gave Mazda its biggest successes within three years, one in showrooms and one on track.

The MX-5, also sold as the Miata, appeared in 1989 as a small, light, rear-wheel-drive two-seat roadster. The first generation (NA, 1989–1997) used a 1.6-litre engine rated at 86 kW (116 hp), with a 1.8-litre from late 1993. The NB, NC and current ND followed in 1998, 2005 and 2015. In 2000 Guinness recorded the MX-5 as the best-selling two-seat sports car, with 531,890 built at that point, and the one-millionth car was completed on 22 April 2016.

In 1991 the Mazda 787B, car number 55, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Volker Weidler, Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot, covering 362 laps or 4,932.2 km (3,064.7 miles). It was the first overall win for a Japanese or Asian maker and the only one for a rotary engine. Its R26B four-rotor engine displaced about 2.6 litres but was rated at 4.7 litres under the equivalence formula of the time; race output is usually quoted at about 520 kW (700 hp). New rules for 1992, based on 3.5-litre engines, ruled the rotary out.

The Mazda3, RX-8 and the end of rotary production cars

In the 2000s the Mazda3 carried the volume while the RX-8 kept the rotary alive.

The Mazda3 replaced the Familia/323 line in June 2003, and by January 2019 more than six million had been sold. The fourth generation, unveiled on 28 November 2018, received the Skyactiv-X 2.0 petrol engine with 132.5 kW (180 PS) in 2019, which uses compression ignition under part of its operating range.

The Mazda RX-8, built from February 2003, used the 1,308 cc Renesis two-rotor engine with up to about 177 kW (241 PS). European sales ended in 2010 because of emissions rules, and the last car was built at Ujina on 22 June 2012, after 192,094 in total. With it ended series production of rotary-engined cars.

Skyactiv, Kodo and the Toyota alliance

From the early 2010s Mazda rebuilt its whole range around Skyactiv engineering and Kodo design. Skyactiv, announced in 2010–2011, covered engines, transmissions, bodies and chassis, with efficiency coming from combustion engines rather than early electrification. Kodo ("soul of motion") is the design language that came with it.

The first production model to combine both was the CX-5, shown at Frankfurt in 2011 and on sale in Japan from February 2012. Mazda already sold crossovers such as the Mazda CX-7, but the Mazda CX-5 became the company's volume model: the best-selling Mazda since 2014, with a record 444,262 sales in 2019 and about 3.5 million in total by March 2022.

As Ford left, Toyota arrived. The two agreed a long-term partnership in May 2015, and in August 2017 formed a capital alliance in which Toyota took 5.05% of Mazda and Mazda 0.25% of Toyota. Their joint plant in Huntsville, Alabama has built the Toyota Corolla Cross since September 2021 and the Mazda CX-50 since January 2022. The Mazda2 Hybrid, based on the Toyota Yaris Hybrid, went on sale in Europe in 2022.

Other partners fill gaps: the BT-50 pickup has been based on the Isuzu D-Max since 2016, and the Changan-developed EZ-6 reached Europe as the Mazda 6e in 2025.

Mazda today: range and news in October 2026

In October 2026 Mazda's newest cars are large SUVs and a new CX-5, with the rotary engine back in a supporting role.

The CX-60, revealed on 8 March 2022, introduced the Large platform with longitudinal engines and rear- or all-wheel drive. It offers a 3.3-litre diesel and a 241 kW (328 PS) plug-in hybrid and received five Euro NCAP stars in 2022. The three-row CX-80 on the same platform was revealed on 18 April 2024 and reached Europe in early 2025. Both are built at Hofu.

The third-generation CX-5 was revealed on 10 July 2025 and went on sale in Japan on 21 May 2026. It uses a 2.5-litre Skyactiv-G petrol engine; a Skyactiv-Z hybrid is scheduled for 2027. The MX-5 ND continues with up to 135 kW (181 hp) since its 2019 update.

The rotary returned in 2023, though not to drive the wheels. The battery-electric MX-30 of 2020 was joined by the MX-30 R-EV, presented on 14 January 2023. Its 830 cc single-rotor engine works only as a 55 kW (75 PS) generator that charges the battery, while an electric motor with 125 kW (170 PS) drives the wheels.

Every model, old and current, is listed in the Mazda catalogue.

Landmark models that defined Mazda

Eleven cars trace Mazda from truck maker to global brand.

Cars from the Cosmo and early RX-7 era are also covered in the classic car archive on 1cars.

Mazda timeline

These are the dated milestones of Mazda history, from the cork works to the Toyota alliance.

Mazda in numbers

Key production and sales figures:

• 1,176 Cosmo Sports built, Mazda's first rotary production model.
• 811,634 RX-7s built, 1978–2002.
• 192,094 RX-8s built, 2003–2012.
• One million MX-5s by 22 April 2016.
• About 3.5 million CX-5s by March 2022.
• About 1.3 million Mazda vehicles sold worldwide in 2024, as usually quoted.