Mazda announced its future plans, including a new
generation of petrol engines that are cleaner than electric cars from a
‘well-to-wheel’ point of view –which measures emissions over the car’s entire
life cycle, including the fuel it uses.
The new range of these super-clean petrol engines is
called Skyactiv-X and will be launched in the market in 2019. The Japanese
company says the new engines use compression ignition technology, in which the
fuel-air mixture ignites spontaneously when compressed by the piston, just like
in the diesel engines.
However they still use spark plugs apparently; Mazda
calls the technology Spark Controlled Compression Ignition and what it does it
to mix petrol and air together in the cylinder, with the mixture then ignited
either via compression at a lower load or via spark at higher loads.
The result is that the Skyactiv-X petrol engine is
20 to 30 percent more fuel efficient over the current Skyactiv-G of the same
displacement. Mazda claims that the next-gen petrol engine even matches or
surpasses the latest Skyactiv-D diesel engine as well, thanks to the
compression ignition’s ability for a super lean burn.
The new Skyactiv-X engines will also come fitted
with a supercharger for an increased torque by 10 to 30 percent when compared
to today’s Skyactiv-G engines. Mazda will also introduce electric cars,
starting from 2019, “in regions that use a high ratio of clean energy for power
generation or restrict certain vehicles to reduce air pollution” and add an
autonomous function as standard to all of its models by 2025.
