Mazda 2 Hybrid Hatchback

1.5i Hybrid Centre Line 5dr CVT [2024]

Some manufacturers seem to have an aversion to the number '1'.

South Korean brand, Kia, is one example (no pun intended) as, for a long time in the United Kingdom, the marque numbered its trim levels but skipped ‘1’, with ‘2’ being the entry-level model.

A similar thing has occurred with Japanese heavyweight Mazda.

The Hiroshima-based manufacturer has a history of simply giving its cars numbers, yet the Mazda 2 is the smallest model it makes.

Whatever happened to the Mazda 1?

In all honesty, Mazda would struggle to make anything more compact than the Mazda 2, given that it's a supermini designed for family friendliness and simplicity. But that hasn't stopped the Northeast Asian automaker from trying. Sort of.

In reality, Mazda hasn’t had to try very hard to come up with something smaller – in fact, the ‘2 Hybrid’ is not a car it has really had to design at all.

That is because if it looks familiar, it’s actually a Toyota Yaris with a slightly different front end.

Unusually – and possibly because of this apparent aversion to the number ‘1’ – the Yaris has had two facelifts without an all-new model being launched.

Now, as part of its own efforts, Mazda is ushering in a revised front-end design on the Hybrid and has put it on the market.

However, oddly, this means Mazda offers two cars called the ‘2’, which look markedly different.

Maybe they should have used the ‘Mazda 1’ name after all?