New-gen Mazda2 sedan breaks cover

THE next-generation Mazda2 sedan has been revealed ahead of its global debut at the Thailand motor show on Friday, and the boot-boosted version could be on its way to Australia.

Resembling a scaled-down Mazda3, the little sedan will go on sale next year in Thailand where it’s the country’s best-selling car, but after a seven year hiatus, the little sedan could return to the Australian range too.

Mazda Australia senior manager public relations Steve Maciver told GoAuto the company is considering bringing the sedan to Australia.

“The Mazda2 sedan is under consideration for Australia but we've yet to make a final decision,” he said.

“We should be in a position to announce more in the next couple of months.” As with the all-new hatch version, which arrived here in October, the sedan adopts Mazda’s new Kodo design language, which is rolling out across the range.

Mazda’s announcement is light on technical details, only revealing that the show car will be quipped with a newly developed 1.5-litre diesel unlike Australian versions of the hatch, which get a 1.5-litre petrol unit in two states of tune.

Mazda Australia stopped importing the Thai-built sedan and decided to solely bring in the hatch following its production being reverted to Japan in 2011.

At the time Mr Maciver said the loss of the variant from the local line-up would only have a minor impact as 90 per cent of sales were for the hatch.

Today the Mazda2 is fighting for the light segment Australian title with Hyundai’s i20 ahead in year to date sales (until the end of October) with 12,613, leading the Japanese car’s 10,920.

Adding the four-door to the local Mazda2 range would see it go up against sedan versions of the Holden Barina, Mitsubishi Mirage and Honda City.