Hundreds of 2016 Mazda3 (facelift) spied at the factory stockyard

The Mazda3 will receive a facelift first in Japan, where it is known as the Mazda Axela. The company released a teaser of the new Mazda Axela in a Japanese newspaper last month.

Exterior changes are minimal on the facelifted Mazda3. Up front, the facelift brings the 2016 Mazda CX-9-inspired headlights with the signature wing grille flowing into it, new foglamps and turn signals with chrome extensions on its sides and repositioned Mazda logo.

At the sides, Mazda has incorporated new LED turn indicator strips in the lower portion of the door mirrors. The rear-end appears to have remained unchanged. As for the interior, spyshots revealed earlier this year that there’s a mildly redesigned steering wheel and an electronic parking brake replacing the manual one, and that the Commander Control unit and gear selector have been repositioned closer to the centre console.

Changes related to the engines, if any, are unknown as of now. The teaser did mention introduction of the 105 PS (77 kW) 1.5-litre SKYACTIV-D diesel engine in Japan though. The current JDM-spec Mazda3 is available with the P5-VPS 82 kW (111 PS) 1.5-litre, PE-VPR 114 kW (155 PS) 2.0-litre and SH-VPTR 129 kW (175 PS) 2.2-litre diesel engines in Japan. There’s also a hybrid variant of the sedan version, consisting of a combination of the PE-VPH 73 kW (99 PS) 2.0-litre petrol engine and the MG 60 kW (82 PS) electric motor.