Mazda unveils SKYACTIV-X engine
TOKYO: Mazda Motor Corp unveiled plans for the world’s first commercial petrol engine using compression ignition, placing traditional engines at the centre of its strategy days after saying it would develop electric cars with Toyota Motor Corp.
Mazda, whose research and development (R&D) budget is a fraction that of Toyota, could be the first carmaker to commercialise a technology that many peers, including General Motors Co and Daimler AG, have been working on for decades.
Mazda said yesterday it would start selling cars equipped with the new engine from 2019, even as other carmakers increasingly turn to electric vehicles against a landscape of tightening environmental regulation.
“We think it is an imperative and fundamental job for us to pursue the ideal internal combustion engine,” said Mazda’s head of R&D Kiyoshi Fujiwara.
“While electrification is necessary... the internal combustion engine should come first.”
A homogeneous charge compression ignition engine ignites petrol through compression, eliminating spark plugs. Its fuel economy potentially matches that of a diesel engine without high emissions of nitrogen oxides or sooty particulates.
The news follows Mazda’s announcement on Friday of a capital tie-up with Toyota, an alliance that will see the pair build a US$1.6 billion (RM6.86 billion) plant in the United States and work together on electric vehicles.
Mazda said the new engine, to be called SKYACTIV-X, would be 20 to 30 per cent more efficient than its current SKYACTIV-G engine. Reuters