After more than two decades, it appears Mazda is about to debut a new corporate logo.
A crucial part of any successful brand is its logo, and Mazda just received a new trademark for a flattened 2D version of its well-recognized “winged M”.
Fundamentally, Mazda appears to be going for a Nissan or Kia-level update: You can still see the clear resemblance to the company’s past logo, but this is more of a modern take for the next era of vehicles. To that end, we did actually see this logo on the Arata EV concept, which the automaker debuted alongside the EZ-6 sedan at Auto China in April.
Mazda has been using its current logo since 1997, with the company slightly tweaking the font alongside the logo from flat blue to a gradient gray in 2015. It’s worth noting that manufacturers file a plethora of patents each year for a wide range of purposes, but it’s possible this new logo precedes a global rebranding, of sorts. For the moment, Mazda itself did not make an official comment on what it’s going to do with this new logo in the future.
Major automakers including Nissan, General Motors, Mini, Volkswagen, Kia and Honda have all redesigned their logos in the past few years. Most of them have also shifted from a more complex 3D logo to a flat 2D design. Time will tell whether Mazda’s latest trademark will ultimately replace the chrome winged M we’ve known for the past 27 years.
