Mazda Is Planning To Make Petrol Cars As Clean As EVs

The Japanese internal combustion-enthusiasts at Mazda are targeting vast leaps in petrol engine efficiency for future generations

Mazda says it is working on petrol engines that, once the energy supply chain is taken into account, are as clean as battery-fed powertrains.

There’s plenty of debate behind the scenes as to the true environmental benefits of electric cars when so much of the electricity that powers them comes from burning fossil fuels. Some companies, like Ecotricity, promise to supply their EV-charging outlets only from renewable sources, but Mazda says electrification isn’t the only way to save the planet.

In a technical conference the company has announced its plans for a range of engines called SkyActiv-3. They will eventually follow on from the SkyActiv-X units that feature Spark Controlled Compression Ignition, or SPCCI. Arriving before the end of March 2019 at the latest, the SPCCI engines will already offer a step change in fuel economy potential.

SkyActiv-3 will mark a gargantuan leap, though, if Mazda can pull it off. It committed itself to internal combustion last year, and now we know how it plans to do it. Its target is to almost double the thermal efficiency of its petrol engines, raising them by 27 per cent and reaching 56 per cent overall.

At the moment that’s simply impossible. If Mazda can find a way, though, stratospheric efficiency is on the cards, along with a target of 25 per cent less carbon emissions. That would serve buyers with well-to-wheel emissions ratings on a par with electric cars that run on electricity generated by gas-fired power stations.

Naturally, because Mazda is trying to achieve what is, today, technically impossible, there’s no time-scale for bringing SkyActiv-3 to market. We doff our caps to the Japanese firm for trying, though.