Mazda Wants To Save The World Using Its New Spark-Less Petrol Engine
We’ve seen a lot of big announcements from car manufacturers recently about future product plans, which usually revolve around electrification. Only a few weeks ago we had Volvo pledging to have some form of electrical power in all of its new models from 2019, and - weirdly - Maserati has similar plans for the same year.
Mazda on the other hand is doing things a little differently. Today the Japanese firm revealed something called Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 - “a new long-term vision for technology development.” And what’s particularly noteworthy of the announcement is that electrical power is pretty low on the agenda.
It gets a token mention halfway down the page, with Mazda saying: “From 2019, start introducing electric vehicles and other electric drive technologies in regions that use a high ratio of clean energy for power generation or restrict certain vehicles to reduce air pollution.” Note the bit in bold - it’s a very good point, and is probably why Mazda has chosen to “continue efforts to perfect the internal combustion engine,” something it’ll do with a revolutionary high compression petrol engine.
We’ve known about Mazda’s efforts to produce a production homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine since for a little while now. HCCI normally uses compression instead of a spark for ignition, much like a diesel engine, but what Mazda has actually cooked up for for its incoming ‘SkyActiv-X’ engine (due in 2019) is HCSI, with the ‘SI’ bit standing for ‘spark ignition’. This blends the two technologies, using both compression and a spark for ignition.
The kind of fuel/air mixture that’ll be in the cylinders simply wouldn’t ignite under normal conditions, which is why it needs the helping hand of compression to explode. This makes a “super lean burn” possible, improving efficiency by anything up to 30 per cent. So it’ll be as efficient (if not more so) than Mazda’s latest diesel engines, with something far nicer coughing out the tail pipe.
Mazda is even on about fitting a supercharger to SkyActiv-X, working together with the compression technology to “deliver unprecedented engine response and increase torque 10 - 30 percent.”
Ladies and gentlemen, there’s life in the good ol’ petrol engine yet…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Hydrogen Rotary
Wouldn’t the weather affect the combustion when starting the engine because I imagine there is an optimal temperature for starting the engine
This is the same technology you find in any Diesel engine. Remember the Diesel cars from 1980something, you know these old Diesels that sounded like a tractor and smoked like a coal powerplant? You needed to preheat the engine before starting it when it was cold outside. However, that’s not a problem with modern Diesels anymore. Turn the key and they fire right up.
Besides, Mazda’s engineers are very competent, so they sure as hell thought of that before. Essentially what they are doing is trying to make a Diesel engine run on petrol.
TL, DR: no.
yes it would but in another article I red that spark plugs would ignite the fuel when combustion couldn’t…
Okay thank you very much. I heard of these engines and I never understood if the temperature would affect it
Mazda, you beautiful madmen
please delete my account!
Briliant! They never believed in downsizing and they were right. Once again they prove the word that zvolution is smarter than big plans to change everything. Thanks a lot Mazda. I just hope more people think like this :)
And now greenpeace will rage at mazda because they didnt made a ev or a prius…
How else are we supposed to spark up a conversation with people?
hahaaahh
This is why I love Mazda so much. Alongside their plan for making an electric battery with Toyota that might be worth its own weight in pollution, they’re also saving the gas engine along the way. This is on top of the fact that they figured out that a 2-ish liter N/A gas engine was the most efficient way to go while everyone else was off downsizing and turbocharging to get the exact same gas mileage.
so, no rx9… I am sad :(
RX-9 with a big SkyActiv-X engine :) (i know it’s not a rotary,but “It’s something” :D)