BRIGHT SPARK

WE’RE IN GERMANY AS MAZDA REVEALS ITS REVOLUTIONARY PETROL ENGINE

As car companies struggle with the aftermath of dieselgate, Mazda has focused on making a petrol engine as efficient as a diesel. The result? SkyActiv- X.

Shown to the global media at Bad Homburg, Germany, last week, SkyActiv- X will join the company’s SkyActiv-G petrol engine and SkyActiv-D diesel products.

The reveal was part of Mazda Motor Corporations’s technology forum, where the company reinforced its belief that the internal combustion engine will be around for decades.

The engine had the suffix “X” to stand for “crossover”, Mazda Motor Corp’s head of R& D, Kiyoshi Fujiwara, told Driven at the global reveal.

The company told the media that the SkyActiv- X would have the fuel efficiency of a diesel engine combined with low carbon dioxide emissions.

The SkyActiv- X engine has a efficient compression ignition that sees the fuel- air mixture ignite spontaneously when compressed by a piston.

Called Spark Controlled Compression Ignition ( SPCCI), Mazda says the system “maximises the zone in which compression ignition is possible, and yields a seamless transition between compression ignition and [ traditional] spark ignition”.

Mazda claims the SkyActiv- X’s lean- burning will improve engine efficiency by up to 30 per cent over the current SkyActiv- G petrol engine and will set fuel economy figures similar to its SkyActiv- D diesel engines.

Mazda also says the new compression ignition system working the engine supercharger will increase torque by between 10– 30 per cent over the SkyActivGpetrol engine.

Mazda was able to control the switch from compression ignition to spark ignition, using the spark plug as a control factor for the switch between the two modes via Mazda’s unique SPCCI.

Engineers found a way to control the timing of the combustion ignition with the flame from the spark plug, while keeping the air- fuel mixture lean.

There is more than twice the amount of air used in the combustion process in the SkyActiv- X as there is in the current SkyActiv- G petrol engine, so the more air used in the air/ fuel ratio the leaner the burn, says Mazda.

With high efficiency across a wide range of rpms and engine loads, the engine allows much more latitude in the selection of gear ratios, providing superior fuel economy and driving performance