It’s refreshing and pure to know that Mazda is still very much making cars for people that enjoy driving, not necessarily fast but for the love of piloting a car. And for as long as governments allow internal combustion engines, Mazda will keep making them. The latest from Hiroshima is dubbed the SkyActiv-Z family, and it’s coming in 2027.
Snagged from an investor’s deck shown recently, the SkyActiv-Z will replace the current range of SkyActiv-G and SkyActiv-X mills. Seeing that the latter’s homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI) tech never caught on much globally, we can’t say we didn’t see it coming.
SkyActiv-Z will be a four-cylinder that’s an amalgamation of lessons learnt from the current range of inline-sixes with the goal of delivering better environmental numbers.
To hit those figures, Mazda will be implementing the lambda one combustion method. Seeing it’s the first time we’re hearing those words as well, let’s have Mazda explain it. “It’s a theoretical combustion method that achieves high thermal efficiency by realising super lean burn combustion over a wider range from low to high rpm, to provide excellent environmental and driving performance.”
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Theoretically, Lambda (“λ” in the Greek alphabet) represents the air-fuel equivalence ratio with this equation, λ = 1.0. This represents the amount of air that is perfectly balanced with the fuel during combustion. The result is that, hypothetically, all the fuel is burned in a perfect combustion that leaves no harmful emissions.
The move to introduce a new engine family is part of Hiroshima’s move to streamline its engine offerings. Initially, the SkyActiv-Z engines will be sold in Europe and the United States as the target is complying with Euro 7 and the EPA’s Tier 4 requirements.
Mazda, together with Toyota and Subaru, are among the last of the internal combustion Mohicans. The trio have committed towards continuing development of these engines with electrification optimisation in mind.
On its end, Toyota also just announced its new ultra-efficient four-cylinder engine while Subaru brought up its Crosstrek’s frugal hybrid powertrain.
As for the icing on the cake, Mazda also revealed that it reinstated a dedicated team in February towards rotary engine development, “The development of emission compliance for the rotary engine is very challenging, but we are making good progress.”
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