Mazda News: Mazda Says Next-Gen Skyactiv will Have EV Levels of Efficiency

[William Maley]

Mazda hasn't even put their Skyactiv-X technologies into production and already they are talking about the next-generation known as Skyactiv-3.

Automotive News reports that Mazda's powertrain chief Mitsuo Hitomi said the gasoline version of Skyactiv-3 will have the same emission levels as an electric vehicle.

Hitomi told attendees of automotive technical conference in Toyko that Mazda will be working on improving the thermal efficiency of its engines. This reduces the "amount of combustion energy lost to heat while increasing the amount harnessed to power the wheels." If Mazda can improve the thermal efficiency by 27 percent, to 56 percent, Hitomi said it could achieve emissions similar to an EV.

How does he come this conclusion? There is a bit of fuzzy math to reach this. It is based Mazda's measurement of wheel-to-wheel emission for electric vehicles and internal combustion engines. For electric vehicles, Mazda includes the carbon dioxide emitted in the production of electricity for the vehicle. The emissions from oil extraction and refining are included in the measurement for internal combustion engines. Mazda's calculations say that some EVs are dirtier than fuel efficient gas-powered models.

Mazda also believes that it cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent with the next-generation of Skyactiv, giving them "real world well-to-wheel fuel economy comparable to EVs deriving their electricity through the burning of liquefied natural gas," according to Hitomi.

No timeframe was given as to when Skyactiv-3 would debut.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

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