Mazda acknowledges EVs, but keeps faith in combustion engines

With the automotive industry starting to shift into alternative ways to keep us mobile, electric vehicles (EVs) are the next big thing for manufacturers. It’s the cleanest and most promising stage of car development these days, so much so that some automakers have even pledged to stop making anything else by as early as 2019. Not Mazda, though.

We caught a few snippets of information from an interview by CarAdvice at the 2018 Los Angeles Motor Show together with Mazda’s managing executive officer of Powertrain development, Ichiro Hirose. While EVs are promising, Mazda’s philosophy of understanding CO2 emissions is just more than what comes out of the tailpipe; they believe that the internal combustion engine (ICE) still has plenty of years to come.

According to Ichiro Hirose, how power is generated in each region or market must be understood, and that’s where EVs can play a role; in a market that makes sense. Clean power in some markets can lead to EVs in everyday mobility, but places with dirtier or different electricity generation methods will still see traditional engines taking center stage, producing less emissions.

That’s not to say Mazda hasn’t adopted the trend; they’re just progressing slower than other Japanese brands. They’ve partnered with Toyota for EV development, although it’s not a priority right now. Mazda’s latest SkyActiv-X engine is the current poster boy for how efficient combustion engines can get, and the recently launched 2019 Mazda3 will put that efficiency to the test in real-world conditions. Hirose also mentioned that a next-generation SkyActiv engine is already in the works as of this writing.

Development of new diesel technology is also in full swing for Mazda, with Hirose saying, “Actually for the diesel engines, we are also continuously working on that in order to achieve the ideal diesel engine. Especially these days, SUVs are quite popular – that means vehicles are bigger and heavier, for those types of vehicles, in terms of reducing CO2, diesel engines still have the advantage... [we have] no plans to phase out diesel.”Could Mazda be the only manufacturer to stand by internal combustion engines in the next five to ten years?Source: CarAdvice