How Mazda's Compression-Ignition Gas Engine Runs Like a Diesel Without Blowing Up

Mazda's Skyactiv-X engine is the first in the world to burn gasoline using diesel-style compression ignition. The result? Amazing power and economy.

Oct. 25, 2017

Yesterday at the Tokyo Motor Show, Mazda released new info on its highly anticipated compression-ignition Skyactiv-X engine. It's all a bit daunting if you're not an engineer, but helpfully, Mazda put together a short video explaining exactly how this revolutionary engine works.

Essentially, this gas-powered engine can run like a diesel, using compression ignition to burn its fuel. Mazda calls this Spark-Controlled Compression Ignition (since a spark plug is still used to initiate combustion), and it's the first engine that can switch seamlessly between compression and spark ignition, depending on load.

This engine also uses a new, split fuel injection system, and an in-cylinder pressure sensor to keep combustion stable and heat in check. Here's how Mazda explains it:
You can read a lot more in-depth coverage on this tech on Mazda's website, but we bet you just want to know the results. Essentially, a 2.0-liter Skyactiv-X engine provides up to 30 percent more torque, sharper throttle response, and a 20-percent improvement in fuel economy compared with Mazda's current 2.0-liter gasoline engine. And Mazda says that at low speeds, the Skyactiv-X can get even better fuel mileage, thanks to its ability to run a super lean fuel mixture.

Skyactiv-X promises the best of both worlds—diesel fuel efficiency with gasoline emissions and drivability. It'll reach production in the 2020 Mazda 3, whose design was previewed in the new Kai Concept that debuted at Tokyo.






If it all works out, this technology could help internal combustion engines stay relevant even with increasingly stringent emissions and economy regulations.

Stunning new four-door unveiled in Tokyo previews 'Kodo' design v2.0

It’s a line trotted out constantly by manufacturers in search of a hook for their latest show car. “This model represents the next generation of our company’s design philosophy.” Often it’s a load of old waffle. But when Mazda decides to deploy it, we sit up and listen.

Why? Because ever since it announced a new Kodo design language with the four-door coupe (see a pattern emerging?) Shinari concept in 2010, it’s set about designing one of the most cohesive and consistently handsome range of cars – from MX-5 to CX-5 – anywhere in the industry.

This, then, is Mazda starting again, pressing reset, Kodo design v2.0. It’s a new beginning that seven years hence will produce another litter of Mazdas destined to nip at the heels of bigger-selling, but probably less-talented cars.

It’s drearily named the Mazda Vision Coupe and, my word, it’s a handsome slab of metal. The idea, and bear with me if it gets a bit design fluff here, is that the Vision Coupe “forgoes the rhythmical motion that prior iterations of Kodo design emphasised in body styling”.

It opts instead for a simple form that “strips away all non-essential elements to embody a less-is-more aesthetic”. To you or me, that translates roughly as the current cars are full of lines and a bit fussy; from now on, expect all Mazdas to have fewer creases than Simon Cowell’s face.

What the Vision Coupe also hints at is yet more focus on perfect proportions. According to Mazda, it benefits from the golden ratio for a Mercedes CLS-sized flowing four-door coupe like this – namely a rearward cabin and an outline that suggests forward movement. Some in the Top Gear office saw shades of the yacht-like Mercedes-Maybach 6 concept when they clapped eyes on it. Don’t worry – we’re fans of that too. All good.

But what about 2015’s rotary-engined RX Vision concept, I hear you cry? That showcased a sleek new look for the company two years ago, surely? Well, yes and no. The rear end appears to tally with this new concept, but the front end is now firmly last-gen. A rotary car is still on Mazda’s wish-list, by the way, but on the back burner while the guys attempt to make the sums stack up.

The interior uses the Japanese architectural concept of ma, obvs. “The intentional use of spaces between components such as the instrument panel, door trim and centre console…to encourage the flow of air between them.” Flatulent drivers will be delighted. Mazda also compares the way you touch the centre console to call up info on the display as the way “a rider communicates with a horse by stroking its mane and back”. God bless the Japanese.

[...] Yamamoto started as a factory worker building transmissions, but within two years, was promoted to management and began work on a new engine for Toyo Kogyo's three-wheeled truck, which was sold under the Mazda brand.

Toyo Kogyo released its first real car, the Mazda R360 in 1960, and in 1961, began a technical partnership with German automaker NSU, which was developing the rotary engine for production car use. Yamamoto was put in charge of a team at Mazda that later became known as the 47 Samurai, who developed rotary engines. In 1964, Mazda presented a prototype of the Cosmo Sport, a two-seater powered by a twin-rotor engine. It's not an exaggeration to say that this is the car that ensured Mazda's future.

[...]

RVINE, Calif.—Despite rumors to the contrary, the internal combustion engine is far from dead. Recently we've seen several technological advances that will significantly boost the efficiency of gasoline-powered engines. One of these, first reported back in August 2017, is Mazda's breakthrough with compression ignition. On Tuesday, Mazda invited us to its R&D facility in California to learn more about this clever new Skyactiv-X engine, but more importantly we actually got to drive it on the road......

For the first time, an engine combines the efficiency of diesel with the cleanliness of gasoline

The Beating Heart: This Mazda prototype incorporates a Skyactiv-X engine within the body of a Mazda3, but the only way you’d know it is by the high fuel economy and the low tailpipe emissions.There are lots of reasons why we’re not all driving electric vehicles now. You’ve probably thought of two or three already, but let me add one that I’m sure you haven’t. It’s a big obstacle to EVs, and it’s rarely remarked upon.

It’s the internal combustion engine, which is no sitting duck. It’s a moving target, and a fast-moving one at that.

There’s no better example of this agile, relentless progress than Mazda’s Spark Controlled Compression Ignition (SPCCI) system, which is scheduled to reach the car-buying public in the form of a new combustion engine in late 2019. Mazda borrowed a trick from the diesel engine, which compresses a fuel-air mixture to the point of ignition rather than igniting it with a spark plug, as gasoline engines do. It’s the biggest advance in combustion engines since electronic fuel injection, which started proliferating in the 1970s.

The new engine operates under some conditions with compression ignition, like a diesel engine, and at other times with spark ignition, like a standard gasoline engine. It will sell under the name Skyactiv-X, building on Mazda’s current engine design, known as Skyactiv-G (G is for gasoline). “We’ve dubbed it Skyactiv-X because it is kind of the intersection of gasoline and diesel technologies,” said Mazda power-train engineer Jay Chen, in a press briefing.

Mazda claims that the 2.0-liter four-cylinder Skyactiv-X provides from 10 to 30 percent more torque and from 20 to 30 percent better fuel efficiency thanthe Skyactiv-G. So, using the 2.0-L Skyactiv-G as the reference, figure on torque somewhere between 224 and 264 newton meters (165 to 195 foot-pounds) for the Skyactiv-X. If you put it in the Mazda3, a compact car, and assume it has only a minimal hybrid-electric design, then its fuel economy should come to between 6.36 and 5.88 liters per 100 kilometers (37 and 40 miles per gallon). Mazda has not yet announced which model will debut Skyactiv-X.

True, an all-electric car posts better numbers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gives the Chevrolet Bolt EV the e-car equivalent of 119 mpg (1.98 L/100 km). On the other hand, the Bolt will go just 383 km (238 miles) on a charge, while the Mazda3, using today’s Skyactiv-G engine, can manage 785 km (488 miles) on a tank of gas.

“The biggest thing I believe Skyactiv-X does is demonstrate that the internal combustion engine is not dead and that EVs are not a shoo-in,” says George Peterson, president of industry consultancy AutoPacific. “There’s a lot of life left in internal combustion power trains until cost and range issues with EVs are solved.”

To understand how SPCCI works, start with the fundamentals of ignition in the three kinds of combustion engine—the diesel engine, the standard gasoline engine, and the immediate forerunner to the SPCCI, called the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine.

In ideal combustion, each hydrocarbon molecule is paired with an oxygen molecule, producing water and carbon dioxide. The molecules are present in the chemically correct ratio that engineers describe as lambda 1. In a lean fuel condition, when there’s more oxygen, lambda is greater than 1. That’s good when the goal is to reduce fuel consumption. And, because such lean combustion mixtures burn cooler than those at lambda 1, they produce less nitrogen oxide pollution.

However, it’s not always easy to get that lean mixture to burn. “The less and less fuel you have in a mixture, the harder and harder it gets to ignite,” Chen explains. “Just like lighting your barbecue without enough lighter fluid.”

The solution, employed in both HCCI and SPCCI engines, is to keep compressing the air-fuel mixture until it is so hot and under so much pressure that it detonates spontaneously. Diesel engines also use such compression ignition, but they first compress pure air into the combustion chamber, then inject the diesel fuel. Only then does the fuel burst into flame.

This sequence is important because the fire starts at the spot where the fuel is injected and spreads to the rest of the combustion chamber. High temperatures in this expanding flame front cause diesel’s characteristic emission of soot particles and nitrogen oxides.

In HCCI combustion, air and fuel mix together in the cylinder during the compression stroke and spread homogeneously throughout the combustion chamber, as they would in a direct-injected gasoline engine. Only after that spreading and mixing are they compressed to the point of autoignition, as in a diesel engine.

So, in a traditional gasoline engine, combustion begins at the spark plug; in a diesel, it begins at the fuel injector; and in an HCCI engine it happens in all parts of the combustion chamber at once. That makes for an intense explosive reaction, one that puts more downward force on the piston during the engine’s power stroke than the other two engine types do. Gasoline and diesel engines both must light the fuel while the piston is still moving upward on the compression stroke, achieving peak cylinder pressure while the piston is close to the top of its stroke.

“That means the piston is still moving up, already building pressure,” says Chen. “The piston has to fight against the current, if you will, of the pressure.”

“If we did compression ignition, it happens over such a short period of time, we can actually target the peak of the pressure right after top dead center of the piston,” Chen continues, using the industry term for the point when the volume of the cylinder is at an absolute minimum. That way, “all the energy is released immediately, and bam!—the piston just pushes down with the greatest amount of force. For the same amount of fuel, we can get a much higher pressure out of our combustion process through compression ignition than we can through traditional spark ignition.”

To make it work, HCCI engines need to run at a very high compression ratio, just as diesel engines do. According to Sandia National Laboratories, one of the few outside sources that gives numbers, HCCI engines typically run at compression ratios as high as 14:1. Conventional turbocharged gasoline engines commonly run at around 10:1, while diesels, such as the familiar Cummins 5.9-L turbo diesel installed in Ram pickups, run at 17.2:1.

However, HCCI engines can’t always time that spontaneous explosion so that it happens just after the piston passes top dead center in its stroke and begins moving downward on its power stroke. They simply can’t be designed to exert such precise control, because they’re harnessing highly exothermic chemical reactions that behave chaotically, in a fast-changing environment.

As Chen puts it, “Whenever the air and the fuel inside the cylinder reaches a critical temperature and pressure, it’s just going to go boom.”

Because HCCI combustion is possible under only the right conditions of load and engine speed, HCCI engines need spark plugs to let them run in conventional, spark-ignition mode as well. And here is where the challenges begin. In an HCCI engine, compression ignition is spontaneous, so it is difficult to know exactly when the cylinder’s air and fuel mixture will ignite. If that rapid, forceful combustion that we prize so much during the power stroke occurs too early, while the piston is still rising for the compression stroke, catastrophic engine damage could occur. But variations in engine load, throttle position, and temperature make it difficult to rule out such premature ignition if some combination of those factors suddenly creates a compression ratio high enough for compression ignition.

Mazda finesses the problem by having the engine initially give just a very small squirt of fuel. That trick ensures that the mixture is so lean, regardless of conditions, that it will never preignite. “Then, during the compression stroke, we give a larger injection of fuel, under higher pressures. That atomizes, but it doesn’t have the same amount of time to heat up. In that way, it doesn’t have enough time to reach the autoignition temperature threshold,” explains Chen.

How, then, to get this lean mixture to light at the most opportune moment in the cycle? Mazda’s creative solution to this problem is to build its SPCCI engines with a compression ratio of about 16:1—just below the threshold for compression ignition in this engine.

The earlier, HCCI engines needed a spark plug for conventional operation when the temperature, engine load, throttle position, and rpms were unsuitable for compression ignition. But Mazda’s engineers realized that by manipulating conditions within the compression chamber, they could use that spark plug to ignite a local fire within the chamber. The expanding flame front increases pressure throughout the combustion chamber, effectively raising the compression ratio high enough to trigger ignition in all parts of the chamber at once.

That left the lighter-fluid problem: How do you light that compression-enhancing fireball in a fuel mixture that’s too lean to catch fire? Mazda’s solution is to create a region near the spark plug that’s just a bit too lean to catch fire by compression alone. The spark can then set off a fireball whose expansion will boost pressure throughout the cylinder and cause compression ignition. In other words, the spark doesn’t so much light the fire as help the fire to light itself.

Creating such a local less-lean zone isn’t easy. “We can’t just put fuel in and make it slightly less lean, because it will just mix with [everything else in the chamber],” Chen notes. “In order to cordon off this region of slightly less lean, and very lean outside of that, we introduce cylinder swirl.”

Just as baristas create artistic images in espresso foam, it is possible to induce the air-fuel mixture inside the cylinder to swirl in a very carefully designed pattern. But rather than drawing a whimsical heart shape, Mazda engineers induce the flowing air to swirl like a hurricane, with a placid eye centered on the spark plug.

“We create this swirl inside the cylinder through our port design in the cylinder head and also because we have a lean supercharger that helps deliver a high amount of flow,” Chen says. “The more flow, or the harder it is blowing, the more turbulence and vortex we have.” It is into this walled-off vortex that the Skyactiv-X engine injects a little extra fuel, just enough extra to let the spark plug set off the fireball that triggers the cylinder-wide spontaneous compression ignition at the correct instant.

Other carmakers that have pursued HCCI engines—notably General Motors and Mercedes-Benz—have had some problems in smoothly switching the engine from HCCI mode to conventional spark-ignition mode. Basically, the vehicle would lose some power for about a second as the transition took place. This hiccup was quite noticeable if some combination of driving conditions meant the engine was switching back and forth between modes frequently.

General Motors insists the problems were mere teething pains. “As we showed with the public demonstration of the GM HCCI development vehicles in 2007–2008, drivability and mode transitions are not a major barrier to commercial implementation,” says Paul Najt, GM engine systems group manager. In his view, the main challenge for commercialization is in economically combining HCCI with other technologies, like the selective deactivation of cylinders, to achieve even greater fuel economies.

Mazda’s Chen explains that SPCCI doesn’t have any problem switching from HCCI to conventional spark ignition because it doesn’t turn the spark plug on and off. It simply adjusts how its spark is used—to ignite the fuel mixture or to pump up the pressure so that the mixture ignites itself.

“Because we are running the spark plug all the time, in both compression-ignition mode and spark-ignition mode, we can drastically expand the range of compression ignition throughout most engine rpm and engine loads,” Chen says. “Only at very high engine speeds do we switch back to a spark-ignition mode.”

This is where SPCCI differs from HCCI. “In a traditional HCCI engine, every time it switches modes, there’s a momentary pause,” Chen says. “And that pause causes a stumble in drivability. So every time you step on the gas, you might get one stumble, then another stumble as it transitions modes. And you have this drivability problem, which is why a traditional HCCI engine never made it to the market. It was good in the labs, it was good maybe as a concept, but customers wouldn’t accept it.”

For the SPCCI, Mazda managed to overcome these problems by equipping its engines with fast electronic valve-timing actuators. Mazda also adds sensors that directly measure combustion pressures in each cylinder every time it fires. This high-speed monitoring lets the engine-management computer make adjustments on the next-to-fire cylinder stroke to ensure that it is running optimally.

Overcoming the drivability problems of earlier incarnations of HCCI may have been the most crucial accomplishment to making SPCCI feasible for production. But Chen says he is most proud of the fact that Mazda was able to advance the state of the art in combustion technology while relying almost entirely on existing, off-the-shelf parts.



Mazda is on the small end of car companies. Its sales of about 1.56 million cars a year is dwarfed by Toyota’s 10 million. So Mazda may seem an unlikely candidate to advance the state of the art in internal combustion. But the company has a history of doing exactly this sort of thing. In the 1970s it became the first (and still only) manufacturer to put the Wankel rotary engine into mass production. In the 1990s, it developed supercharged Miller cycle engines, which are relevant to the Skyactiv-X because each engine design employs an engine-driven supercharger to pump a high volume of air into the cylinder. Typical performance-oriented supercharged engines, such as the 527-kilowatt (707-horsepower) Dodge Challenger Hellcat Hemi V8, use the compressor to pack air into the cylinders and so to boost power output.

This air-supply scheme employs an intercooler to help cool the intake charge, just as conventional superchargers do. Much of the incoming air is recirculated exhaust gas. Cooling the air raises its density, which puts that much more oxygen in the combustion chamber.

Skyactiv-X also features a hallmark of economy-focused engines, a hybrid-electric assist motor. The engine is incorporated within a “mild” hybrid power train, which means the electric motor can’t propel the car on its own. A belt from the engine drives the car’s rather small alternator, which is smaller than a “strong” hybrid’s alternator but a bit larger than what you’d find in a conventional car with an ordinary 12-volt battery. In the Mazda, the alternator allows the car to recover a bit of energy during deceleration, store it in the battery and later use it to seamlessly stop and restart the gasoline engine. (Cold starts are performed by a regular starter motor.)



The same advances in digital technology that are boosting the fortunes of EVs are also extending the life span of combustion engines. True, the basic moving parts, such as pistons, crankshafts, and valves, remain largely unchanged, but everything else about the process of capturing energy from burning gasoline is in flux.

Computers are providing modeling and analysis that lend insight into combustion that never existed previously. Indeed, MIT’s Green Research Group has developed a combustion model that can run on PCs. The MIT Engine Simulator (MITES) follows 4,000 chemical reactions that can take place in combustion; this analysis enables it to characterize the operating range of HCCI engines. Other engine-development tricks include using engines with clear quartz cylinders fitted with laser sensors that peer into the fiery cauldron. Of course, carmakers like Mazda have enough computing resources to model complex combustion events before building a test engine, but having a modeling tool that runs on a PC can give others the ability to look into this developing area at much lower cost.

“HCCI engines are more sensitive to the details of the combustion chemistry than [spark-ignition] and diesel engines,” note the MITES developers in a paper describing their tool. “Hence, without a solid understanding of the physical and chemical processes taking place in HCCI engines, it is difficult to develop practical, efficient, and robust engines.”

Other than the cylinder-pressure sensors, all of the Skyactiv-X’s components are substantially the same as those in today’s engines “We did it without reinventing the engine, hardware-wise,” Chen says. “Everything in the engine is a component that existed somewhere on the market before Skyactiv-X.”

That continuity with the past explains a bit of the magic that Mazda has invoked. Internal combustion is no desiccated relic of the past but a living, developing technology. As the heir to untold investments and ingenuity, the gasoline power plant continues to fend off challenges from electric propulsion. It will be in a lot of cars for the next generation of motorists. And for the one after that, too.

With various Mazda execs touting a return of rotary tech for the last few years, the company itself has finally given us confirmation. At the Paris Motor Show, the Japanese company announced that its first-ever EV - set for a 2020 launch - will be available with a “small, lightweight and exceptionally quiet rotary engine as a range-extender.”

Rotary engines are compact yet able to produce impressive power outputs, making them ideal range-extenders, Mazda reckons its new one will even be able to run on liquefied petroleum gas if required.

It’s perhaps not the rotary return lovers of the RX-7 and RX-8 might have wanted, but as has been pointed out by Mazda personnel before, this new project keeps Wankel technology alive and makes it much cleaner-burning than before. This increases the likelihood of a rotary-powered ‘RX-9’ happening. It still seems like a remote possibility, but it’s a possibility nonetheless.

It may seem like Mazda is late to the EV party, but that’s very deliberate. It has committed itself to a “right solution at the right time” strategy, citing varying electricity production methods that mean electric cars aren’t always as green as we might think. This is why the firm is - shock horror - still developing petrol engine technology, in the form of its new high-compression SkyActiv-X engine.

Mazda has even extensively redesigned the 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated SkyActiv engine in the MX-5, allowing it to rev higher and produce more power. Rotary engines, relaying electrification and persevering with N/A engines? Mazda certainly seems determined to do things differently.

In the “It Had To Happen” department, Mazda finally says it will use its rotary engine as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) generator. It also says it will deliver a pure EV by 2020. But is it too little, too late after downplaying batteries for over a decade?

A decade ago, while the world was crumbling and revealing a drunken automotive world, pants down, unprepared, and paying the price of beer for champaign, a few companies staunchly held onto gasoline and diesel engines among the ruins of their follies.

Audi, Toyota, and Mazda were among the loudest anti-EV companies in 2009. According to the people I knew at Mazda then, the company was happy it was on its own again and could finally focus on making its platform as efficient as it could. This led to Mazda’s Skyactiv-X philosophy that meant lightening the car, reducing friction, and heat dissipation. That lofty goal landed the seriously revamped Mazda 6, followed by the 3, etc. But batteries? Never.

This week, Mazda announced that its rotary engine could be used as a generator for a PHEV platform — as we requested a decade ago. And finally, a Mazda EV will finally be here within the next two years. I do agree that Mazda can do one thing well — it can engineer great cars. Now, it needs to prove that with electricity.

In its press release, the company announced it will continue to focus on maximizing the efficiency of its internal combustion engine (ICE) for its next generation of SKYACTIV-X gasoline and diesel engines. It also announced good news with the launch its first true EV in 2020.

2018 has seen a lot of companies turn around and swallow the humility pill. Toyota now talks about EVs, so does Audi, and now finally Mazda. Who else is missing?

Mazda says it expects mobility will be predominantly ICE based with just some electric support — 95% non-electric cars by 2030. In other words, Mazda says it will only produce 5% pure, true EVs by 2030. It clarifies that: “Mazda is committed to reducing its corporate average ‘Well-to-Wheel’ CO2 emissions to 50% of 2010 levels by 2030, and to 90% by 2050. But the company is also committed to the principal of the right solution at the right time and -since energy availability and automotive power source fitness vary from region to region- in the right place.”

Clearly, Mazda still believes in the diversify of fuel options, which include compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen, as well as recyclable liquid fuels such as biofuels from microalgae growth. We can always say, “the more the merrier,” but is the company just that far behind that it doesn’t have anything else to argue? Of course, 5% EV by 2030 is far lower than what other carmakers are reporting. But if it doesn’t have competitive electric cars, what else can it say?

On a personal side, I wonder if the electric Mazda will be sporty or have more sedan-like ambitions?

Mazda is keen to keep its classic names from falling into other's hands as the Japanese automaker has filed to renew the the trademark for the name "MX-6."

The company filed the trademark with the Japanese Patent Office in October before it was published to the online archives in November. AutoGuide first discovered the trademark in a Monday report.

For those who don't recall, the Mazda MX-6 was sold from 1987 until 1997 in the United States. The front-wheel-drive coupe was hardly a sales success, but a GT model featured a turbo-4 engine that made a punchy 145 horsepower. The second-generation MX-6 debuted in 1992 and was twinned with the Ford Probe sport coupe. An available 2.5-liter V-6 increased output to 164 hp. Again, the MX-6 failed to attract a fanbase and Mazda pulled the sport coupe from the market after 11 years and two generations.

A trademark filing does not necessarily mean an automaker has a new product in the pipeline. Instead, more often than not, a company wants to protect its names from use elsewhere. We'd imagine it's the latter case for Mazda's latest trademark. The company has been focused on positioning itself as a more premium brand and moved away from sportier offerings. At the 2018 LA Auto Show, Mazda CEO Akira Marumoto said there are no plans for a rotary sports car. How about a new Mazdaspeed 3? Also no.

The lack of a sporty performance car flies in the face of the stunning RX-Vision concept the company showed at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. Instead, it appears the sports car concept previewed the brand's future design language, which is on full display with the 2019 Mazda 3 sedan and hatchback.

In any case, we've reached out to Mazda for comment on the trademark filing and will update this story when we hear back.

The all-new Mazda3 sedan and hatchback have something no previous Mazda sedan or hatch ever had: optional all-wheel-drive. It’s also a first for the 3 itself. We doubt there will be any complaints from supposed front-wheel-drive enthusiasts (if any even exist). There are many benefits to having AWD and Mazda is confident the fun-to-drive factor it’s known for will be fully retained, if not improved.

Motor Trend has learned from Mazda North America CEO Masahiro Moro that AWD will be a core feature in every new model, save for one. Can you guess which one? "Yes, everything but the MX-5 (Miata),” Moro said. Probably Miata we’ll keep rear-wheel-drive. All-wheel-drive doesn’t make sense.” All-wheel-drive will instead be expanded to the next Mazda6 and be available for all crossovers because "it is much safer in all road conditions and is fun to drive.”

And speaking of the Mazda6, Moro also confirmed plans to offer the popular mid-size sedan with a diesel engine, most likely the SkyActiv 2.2-liter oil burner found in the CX-5 crossover. What’s the holdup? The emissions validation process. Just because it’s the same engine, the process needs to be done all over again because it’s a different vehicle and body style. Moro wouldn’t discuss which other models aside from the 6 sedan and CX-5 will receive a diesel engine, only that US government approval for more diesels was granted only in November.

And for anyone else still wondering whether there’ll be a new MazdaSpeed3, forget it once and for all. Moro kind of explained why: "Our products are maturing. For example, we have a turbo for CX-5, so we did not make a MazdaSpeed5.” In other words, Mazda is officially out of the hot hatch fanboy business, at least for the foreseeable future.

The rotary engine technology will return as well, but only as a generator combined with a small gas tankfor a future electrified model, but that information isn’t really anything new. It’s simply a confirmation it’s happening from the guy in charge.

Mazda has already announced plans to unveil a brand new crossover at the Geneva Motor Show, but it turns out there's another one in the pipeline set to satiate the appetites of a crossover-mad U.S. market. Speaking at the Chicago Auto Show, Mazda North America CEO Masahiro Moro told reporters the brand has another model planned for production at the $1.6 billion plant under construction with joint-venture partner Toyota in Huntsville, Ala.

It'll be "a new crossover SUV which is exclusively designed for the North American market," Automotive News quoted Moro as saying. While it'll be a different product from the one debuting next month in Geneva, the two vehicles will share some architecture. The company is reportedly still finalizing the concept for it.

Currently, Mazda sells three crossovers in the U.S.: the subcompact CX-3, the compact CX-5 and the larger CX-9. Together, the three vehicles, which constitute half of the tiny automaker's vehicle lineup, posted sales of 195,778 for 2018, up 15.8 percent from 2017. They accounted for nearly two-thirds of the brand's total vehicle sales of 300,325.

Production is expected to start at the new Alabama plant in mid-2021, Moro said, and add capacity for 150,000 units of crossovers. The plant is expected to employ up to 4,000 workers with a total capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year. Toyota plans to build the Corolla there alongside Mazda's crossovers.

Mazda last week released the teaser pic shown above of its forthcoming new crossover headed for Geneva. It could be the next and slightly larger version of the CX-3, which will use the Skyactiv Vehicle Architecture that also supports the new Mazda3.

Mazda has some pretty exciting powertrain technology in the works, particularly its Skyactiv-X spark-controlled compression-ignition engine, but also the upcoming range-extended electric vehicle with a rotary engine. It offers the possibility of electric transportation with a distinctly Mazda way of getting electricity from gas when charging isn't an option. But we learned that Mazda has some other ideas for the rotary range-extender beyond transportation, and even beyond gasoline.

In talking with Ichiro Hirose, Maza's managing executive officer for powertrain and vehicle development, product planning and cost innovation, we learned that the company is exploring the powertrain's potential as an emergency generator. Naturally if an engine is suitable for creating electricity in a car, it would be suitable to provide electricity to buildings or tools. Besides a rotary engine used as a standalone generator, Hirose said the company is investigating the potential for complete cars to be used as emergency generators, since they're already mobile.

Gasoline wouldn't have to be the only potential fuel, either. Hirose said Mazda is looking at possibly running the engine on liquified petroleum gas, or LPG. We asked if hydrogen was also being considered, since Mazda has a history of hydrogen-powered rotary prototypes, even some that could run on hydrogen or gasoline, but Hirose said that's not being looked at right now.

Mazda is developing gas and diesel inline-six engines

A Skyactiv-X and Skyactiv-D I6 will appear in a new larger vehicle platform

The models will allegedly include a new Lexus coupe slotting between the RC and LC

The future generation of several Toyota and Lexus cars will allegedly source their rear-drive platform and inline-six engine from Mazda, according to a rumor citing unnamed insiders from Best Car in Japan. The first of these models could arrive as soon as 2022.

Toyota allegedly plans to use the Mazda-sourced rear-drive platform and inline-six engine first on a successor to its Mark X(pictured below) premium sedan. Lexus intends to implement these parts on a new coupe that would slot between the existing RCand LC.

Best Car also seems to hint that Lexus plans to use this Mazda-sourced platform for quite a while. The report claims that the next-gen Lexus IS and RC would ride on the TGNA chassis with a V6 engine, but the model after that would switch to the Mazda setup with the inline-six mill.

Mazda's report to investors in March 2019 included the company's plan to build an inline-six-cylinder engine using the company's Skyactiv-X technology. The same report announced the plan to create a new large vehicle architecture that would support rear- and all-wheel-drive models. The automaker's outline showed its intention to roll out the new components between 2020 and 2025.

It lends a little more credence to this rumor that Toyota and Mazda already have a close working relationship. For example, the new Yaris Hatchback in the United States has very close connections to the Mazda2. In addition, the pair has a partnership to build a $1.6 billion factory in Alabama for initially building the Toyota Corolla and a Mazda crossover. There have even been rumblings of a full merger between Toyota and Mazda, but execs have denied the possibility.

Mazda makes sure it has lots of options for names of future vehicles.

Mazda has filed for a slew of new trademarks in Europe, but one of them was especially interesting. The company wants to reserve the name MX-30 for future vehicles, and it leaves us wondering what the model could be. Auto Guide first discovered the trademark applications.

Historically, Mazda has used the MX prefix for performance vehicles. Most notably, the moniker has appeared on the MX-5 Miataroadster. However, it also showed up on the MX-3 compact coupe (pictured above) and larger MX-6 two-door.


Given the lack of popularity of sporty coupes in the modern auto market, don't get your hopes up about the MX-30 being the return of a tiny, performance-oriented two-door vehicle to the Mazda lineup. Instead, the name's similarity to the recently unveiled CX-30 (gallery below) might be a hint at what the automaker is thinking.


We have to wonder whether Mazda intends to use the MX prefix as a way to denote sporty trims of existing models. The company hasn't used the Mazdaspeed or MPS branding for years, so it might be time for new branding for performance-oriented vehicles from the company. If this is the case, then the MX-30 would be a more aggressive version of the CX-30.

At the same time as the MX-30 filing, Mazda also applied to trademark CX-10, CX-20, CX-40, CX-50, CX-60, CX-70, CX-80, and CX-90. While we highly doubt the company actually brings vehicles with all of these monikers to market, the registrations signal the automaker's intention for the CX-30 not to be a one-off addition to the lineup.

As of this writing, Mazda hasn't yet applied for any of these trademarks in the United States.

Toyota will build new SUV at Alabama plant it's building with Mazda

Mazda already had plans for a new SUV at the facility