While most manufacturers scramble to parade their latest breakthroughs in electrification and autonomous driving, the primary message at the Mazda booth is something far simpler and more relatable for all – design. This was conveyed through two world premieres, the Vision Coupe and Kai Concept.

Essentially a four-door extension of the RX-Vision that made its debut two years ago, the Vision Coupe previews the second phase of Mazda’s Kodo design language which will set the visual tone for models to come in the next few years. Mazda notes the “interplay of light and shade” and “the beauty of empty space” as inspiration for this design evolution. We don’t know what to make of that, but the Vision Coupe is easily one of the best-looking four-door concepts we’ve seen in recent times.

While the Vision Coupe is evidently a design exercise that’s still years away from production, the Kai Concept (pic below) offers a more positive preview of things to come in the near term. The sleek hatchback is a rather convincing hint of what the next-generation Mazda3 could look like. And while Mazda are keeping mum about this, it has released preliminary dimensions – 4,420mm long, 1,855mm wide with a 2,750-mm wheelbase – that aren’t too far off the existing Mazda3’s footprints.

Mazda has even identified its SkyActiv-X engine as the powertrain of choice for this concept, backing our suspicion that it might be much closer to production than the Vision Coupe. The revolutionary power plant, which uses a compression-based ignition unlike any other gasoline engine in production, is said to be 30 percent more efficient than the existing SkyActiv-G engine.

Whether it’s efficient enough to battle modern day turbos and hybrids or not is immaterial. Mazda is bound to sell more cars in the future if all of them look like this, don’t you think?