Mazda Motor Corporation has just announced their “Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030” plan, a new long-term vision for future technology developments. The first innovation conceived from this new plan is the second-generation SkyActiv engine – SkyActiv-X which will make its debut in 2019.
SkyActiv-X will be the world’s first gasoline engine to use compression ignition technology to ignite fuel. More commonly referred to as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), the SkyActiv-X works similarly to a diesel engine. During the HCCI process, air-fuel mixture is compressed by the pistons only before igniting the fuel to drive the crankshaft.
Mazda SkyActiv-D Diesel Engine
Mazda said that SkyActiv-X engines will still come with spark plugs to allow compression ignition to happen more efficiently while achieving a seamless transition between compression ignition and spark ignition. Mazda has coined the combustion method as Spark Controlled Compression Ignition, the first of its kind.
The new engine promises 10 to 30 percent increase in torque and 20 to 30 percent better engine efficiency compared to the current SkyActiv-G engines. Mazda even went as far as saying the new SkyActiv-X petrol engine equals or exceeds the latest SKYACTIV-D diesel engine in terms of fuel efficiency!
Mazda SkyActiv-G Petrol Engine
Besides the new SkyActiv-X engine, the company is aiming to introduce electric vehicles and other forms of electrified vehicles, confirming our previous report. Mazda is looking to first introduce EVs 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.
All these are Mazda’s initiatives to create a sustainable future for people and cars alike and with the SkyActiv-X, it just goes to show how much more potential internal combustion engines still have locked away in them. Hopefully with more innovations to come from Mazda, western countries may rethink the blanket ban on internal combustion engines.
