Mazda CEO Says Long-Delayed U.S. Diesels Still Coming
CARS.COM — The much-delayed Mazda SkyActiv small diesel engines still are on the way for the U.S. despite the Volkswagen scandal, according to the company’s CEO.
“We are not giving up. We have a timeline,” Masamichi Kogai, Mazda CEO, told Automotive News (subscription required) at an event in Japan. He declined to reveal that internal timeline, however.
The diesel was announced for 2012 and promised for the redesigned Mazda6 in 2014, but it never arrived. In the meantime, Volkswagen’s diesel emissions cheating scandal has tanked the reputation of diesels in the U.S.
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Hiroyuki Matsumoto, general manager of Mazda’s vehicle development division, told the trade journal he is confident engineers will achieve the right balance of low diesel emissions with driving performance for a U.S.-market diesel. Strict U.S. emission rules have made it difficult to achieve both.
Time is running short if the coming diesel would be the current-generation SkyActiv engine. SkyActiv is Mazda’s trade name for its suite of high-efficiency engines, transmissions and platform technologies, and its impressive performance has helped the company post top corporate average fuel economy numbers. For example, the Mazda3 compact sedan with the 2.0-liter engine and automatic transmission is rated 30/41/34 mpg city/highway/combined.
But Mazda already has announced it will roll out the next generation of SkyActiv technology, including new engines, in time for the 2020 round of stricter efficiency and emissions rules in Europe. Mitsuo Hitomi, head of powertrain development, told Automotive News that the new gas engine should be about 30 percent more efficient than the current SkyActiv gas versions thanks to higher compression ratios and a new, diesel-like ignition technology.
Mazda announced the SkyActiv effort in 2011 and the suite of technologies began rolling out through the U.S. lineup with the gasoline engine in some models of the 2012 Mazda3 compact. The suite now has moved across line, including the first SkyActiv turbocharged engine for the U.S. in the redesigned 2017 CX-9.
