Skyactiv-X heart
Mazda rather modestly calls its SkyActiv-X engine technology a landmark moment in the 120-year history of the internal combustion engine.
The new engine is now available in the $51,995 Mazda3 Takami and $54,990 CX-30 Takami, which we drove courtesy of Fairview Motors.
That's an extra $3200 for the Mazda3 over the top SkyActiv-G version and $4000 for the CX-30, although the premium does include extra Takami equipment: both models get high-gloss alloy wheels (black for the Mazda3), upgraded leather upholstery, frameless rearvision mirror, heated steering wheel and 360-degree parking cameras.
The Mazda3 Takami adds larger exhaust pipes, while the CX-30 Takami gains a power tailgate (a curious omission on the rest of the range).
But what you're really getting for your extra few thousand is that revolutionary new engine, which Mazda reckons is the first step on a path towards a hugely more efficient future for the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE).
SkyActiv-X is a simple concept with a dizzyingly complex execution. Essentially, it's a petrol engine that works like a diesel most of the time. SkyActiv-X can employ spark-ignition like a conventional petrol, but it can also quickly transition to a form of compressionignition, like a diesel. The spark plug is still used at all times, but in Spark Controlled Compression
Ignition (SPCCI) mode it acts as a control unit to help create separate zones of fuel-air mixture for lean burn.
There's all sorts of extra tech at work in there, including a supercharger to help with the volume of high-pressure air required. Why expend so much time and money on a revolutionary petrol engine when so many argue that ICE is in its twilight years? The inconvenient truth is that new technologies
will take decades to dominate. Mazda says ICE will still power 95 per cent of its range in 2030, albeit with a lot of hybrid electrification (which SkyActiv-X has). And it is working on Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) right now, like the forthcoming MX-30.
Mazda is also fond of quoting figures that show a SkyActiv-X car is cleaner than a short-range BEV if the latter is not being run on sustainable electricity.
On a "well to wheel" basis (fuel extraction and refinement all the way to filling and running the car), a SkyActiv-X generates 142g/km compared with 200g for the BEV (source fuel manufacture figures in case you're shouting "fake news!" about now: Comprehensive Evaluation of Life Cycle CO2 Emissions of Electric Power Generation Technologies in Japan, Report Y06).
That's not as relevant in New Zealand, where we have clean hydro electricity but it does help explain the global thinking.
The holy grail for SkyActiv-X is the lowdown flexibility and fuel economy of a diesel with the cleaner running, performance and revhappy nature of a petrol.
The tech-minded will certainly be drawn to the new models, but they'll be a more challenging showroom sell because the onpaper gains won't blow your socks off.
The SkyActiv-X 2.0-litre mild hybrid powertrain makes 132kW/ 224Nm, compared with 114kW/ 200Nm for the SkyActiv-G 2.0l and 139kW/252Nm for the 2.5l. Average fuel economy of 5.5l/100km for the Mazda3 SkyActiv-X and 6.0l for the CX-30 is about 10 per cent better than the SkyActiv-G 2.0l, although Mazda says the biggest gains from the diesel-like combustion are in highstress low-speed running, where the X-factor improves things by over 15 per cent.