Mazda Is Planning To Make Petrol Cars As Clean As EVs

The Japanese internal combustion-enthusiasts at Mazda are targeting vast leaps in petrol engine efficiency for future generations
Mazda Is Planning To Make Petrol Cars As Clean As EVs

Mazda says it is working on petrol engines that, once the energy supply chain is taken into account, are as clean as battery-fed powertrains.

There’s plenty of debate behind the scenes as to the true environmental benefits of electric cars when so much of the electricity that powers them comes from burning fossil fuels. Some companies, like Ecotricity, promise to supply their EV-charging outlets only from renewable sources, but Mazda says electrification isn’t the only way to save the planet.

100mpg MX-5, anyone?
100mpg MX-5, anyone?

In a technical conference the company has announced its plans for a range of engines called SkyActiv-3. They will eventually follow on from the SkyActiv-X units that feature Spark Controlled Compression Ignition, or SPCCI. Arriving before the end of March 2019 at the latest, the SPCCI engines will already offer a step change in fuel economy potential.

SkyActiv-3 will mark a gargantuan leap, though, if Mazda can pull it off. It committed itself to internal combustion last year, and now we know how it plans to do it. Its target is to almost double the thermal efficiency of its petrol engines, raising them by 27 per cent and reaching 56 per cent overall.

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At the moment that’s simply impossible. If Mazda can find a way, though, stratospheric efficiency is on the cards, along with a target of 25 per cent less carbon emissions. That would serve buyers with well-to-wheel emissions ratings on a par with electric cars that run on electricity generated by gas-fired power stations.

Naturally, because Mazda is trying to achieve what is, today, technically impossible, there’s no time-scale for bringing SkyActiv-3 to market. We doff our caps to the Japanese firm for trying, though.

Source: Automotive News

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Comments

LukeyWolf

This is what I love about Mazda!

01/30/2018 - 09:34 |
69 | 0
BenPaye(JDMSquad)(MX5Squad)(LFAsquad)(Subie Squad) (Rotary F

In reply to by LukeyWolf

Same!

01/30/2018 - 09:49 |
9 | 0
Sniff Petrol

Mazda is both the hero the petrolhead community both needs and deserves at this point

01/30/2018 - 09:35 |
12 | 0
SAVAGE DOGG (Ping-Pong Gang) (Corvette Squad)

Mazda is Jesus in the car industry

01/30/2018 - 09:37 |
61 | 1
01/30/2018 - 13:21 |
21 | 0
SAVAGE DOGG (Ping-Pong Gang) (Corvette Squad)

It would be awesome if they made a new “clean” rotary

01/30/2018 - 09:40 |
4 | 1
Renault GTR

I have to admit, as a teen who was, until this very moment, scared of the impending doom of the ICE, Mazda once again managed to restore my faith. My joy right now is so immense I am crying.

01/30/2018 - 09:41 |
37 | 0

☺☺

01/30/2018 - 11:48 |
2 | 0

Samr - thought that ice would be gone :/ TY SOMUCH MAZDA 👌👍😄

02/01/2018 - 05:53 |
0 | 0
Zubayer Rezoan
01/30/2018 - 09:41 |
206 | 1

FR, they are smart af…

01/30/2018 - 11:47 |
3 | 0
Richard the edition 100

pffffft electric cars are not clean mazda you can go rolling coal and you will still be more inviromental friendly then electric cars because this is where batteries of electric cars are mined

01/30/2018 - 09:42 |
5 | 10

Have you seen the oil industry though?

01/30/2018 - 11:56 |
2 | 1

I think hydrogen fuel cells are the way to store charge efficiently. There are also numerous new environmentally friendly battery technologies in rnd :)

01/30/2018 - 12:41 |
1 | 0

Please enlighten us then on the oh-so environmentally friendly oil extraction

01/30/2018 - 13:20 |
1 | 0

That’s a copper mine….

Most lithium is extracted from solar evaporated brine water.

01/30/2018 - 20:48 |
3 | 0
Anonymous

“Cleaner than EV” that’s already done! Good joke… EV are juste better for air pollution in big cities otherwise it’s worse than petrol.

01/30/2018 - 09:45 |
34 | 1
Ali Mahfooz

If there is a petrolhead savior, it would go by the name of Mazda. 😀

01/30/2018 - 09:46 |
55 | 0
BenPaye(JDMSquad)(MX5Squad)(LFAsquad)(Subie Squad) (Rotary F

Mazda for the win!

01/30/2018 - 09:50 |
2 | 1