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Blue sky thinking by Mazda over future electric power and engines
publication date: May 14, 2011
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author/source: Robin Roberts
Mazda is putting the brakes on
electric and hybrid vehicle development, says Jeremy Thomson, Managing
Director, Mazda UK.
Instead of pushing ahead with
the expensive new technology, Mazda has decided to refine existing petrol and
diesel engine technology to make substantial emissions and fuel savings before
harnessing electric power.
|  | "We believe this is the right
way forward," he said. "Why move to new technology with inefficient old
technology as a starting point?"
The benefits of this approach
are that customers benefit from greater savings sooner than they would with EV
or HV systems, it is a cheaper route to efficiency and overall it will produce
much more significant savings and it does not rely on new scarce charging
infrastructures.
Mazda UK PR director Graeme
Fudge said their developments of existing internal combustion engines were
under their Skyactiv programme.
"In many ways this is probably
the most important jump in six generations of models and something which is
important for Mazda globally in environmental terms. We are not doing it just
because we can but we have a good reason and people in future will appreciate
the sense of Skyactiv."
The use of high strength
steels, some 50pc more than currently incorporated, could produce significant
weight savings in body and chassis design (see below).
Altogether, the objective of
Mazda is to set a standard of successive models being 100kg lighter than those
replaced.
|  | Mazda pioneered and persevered
with the rotary engine and Miller Cycle engine and has further plans for them
but it is more conventional internal combustion engines which will see the
greatest change under Skyactiv.
ICEs are over a century old in
concept but despite the various advances made in that time the typical power
unit is still only producing about 30pc of the energy it could generate.
Taking engines of 2008 as a
baseline, the Skyactiv engineers believe they can slash emissions by 30pc and
fuel consumption by 20pc by 2015. |  | Mr Fudge added that there were
a number of steps the engineers had taken and would continue to develop, but
they had seen significant improvements by reducing compression ratio in diesel
engines and substantially increasing it in petrol engines, in fact to a higher
ratio than even an F1 engine was working.
Reducing stresses, lightening
components and utilizing advanced engine management including stop/ start
technology were key to the achievements and aims of the programme, he said.
A
new type of automatic transmission will save 16pc on weight and be more fuel
efficient in future (left).
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It is with these savings in
the bag that Mazda will then look at the best EV and HV technology and this
delay will also produce a natural time interval for this newest technology to
be further refined and applied by Mazda.
Mr Thomson said the first
generation of Skyactiv technology will appear on the Mazda CX 5 in 2012 and
this will be a family car with a 180bhp 2.2 diesel engine which produces 120gkm
and is capable of returning 70mpg.
"This really is a technology
which works, is good for the environment and does not affect the enjoyment of
driving, which is a key element of Mazda's philosophy," he added. | | |
Mazda UK believes it will escape the worst of the car
supply problems after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, but it will still be
a challenge for dealers as the September plate change approaches.
Mr Thomson said the amount of
stock on boats and in European holding centres as well as at dealerships when
the disaster hit was significant because it would allow them to sell about
40,000 new cars this year, just a few thousand below last year's total and the
maker anticipated being back at full capacity by August. © Robin Roberts
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