Rotary won’t die but current Mazda3 a hard act to follow
BY PHILIP LORD | 13th Oct 2008
Mr Spender, appointed as vice-president of Mazda six months ago, spoke to GoAuto while visiting Australia last week as part of a global tour of Mazda operations.
Responding to criticism that the new Mazda3 does not appear to be a significant advance over the current model, Mr Spender said: “The first generation has been an outstanding success, and the leap from the previous generation 323 was huge.” “It’s very hard to replicate that quantum leap, because the last car [the current-generation Mazda3] was so good. We’re going to have to work very, very hard to build on the success of the first generation.” Mr Spender says that despite the high standard set by the current Mazda3, he believes that the new Three will nonetheless prove a success, especially with interior quality.
“This car, however, is another quantum leap. I think customers will be hugely impressed with the interiors - that’s huge - and the styling is starting to head into a Nagare-type direction. I think it will be very appealing. Customers will like it.” Mr Spender gave more detail on his company’s technology rollout announced in July - the Sustainable Zoom Zoom strategy - that is to meet its goal of 30 per cent fuel consumption reduction by 2015 by improving on or adding to current technologies.
The first significant technology introduction will be an engine stop-start system, says Mr Spender.
“The idle stop-start system will be introduced in Japan next year. We wanted to launch that close to home to keep an eye on its introduction, and then we’ll move to Europe and other markets after that.”
He also outlined in more detail the steps his company plans to take towards improving efficiency, and nominated the start date for the bulk of the new technology required to meet the Sustainable Zoom Zoom strategy.
“[This] involves re-engineering platforms and engines, and starting from around 2011, we’ll bring in these new combustion technology engines, lighter weight, aerodynamics, new transmission technologies that will then really set-up the next major phase of development for us.” Part of that process is weight - and while Mr Spender concedes that the new Mazda3 is about the same weight as the existing model, there are changes coming.
“Mazda is good at light weight - the MX-5 was really the genesis of that - and we’re working very hard on joining technologies, material technologies, to be able to take something like 100 to 120kg of weight out of every future car we do,” he said.
Mazda’s commitment to the rotary engine will not waver with the rush of new technology - Mr Spender says that the rotary is an intrinsic part of the changes.
"Rotary is the heart of Mazda, and when you work at Mazda, you just see how important it is to us, and it is about communicating who we are, we’re different, and rotary has to be part of that future.” “We are developing a new technology rotary, the 16X. The heart of the engine is around new developments in combustion technology, and so we think we can get much better performance and also much better fuel economy from petrol.
“I think its real future is hydrogen, because the cold combustion chamber nature of the rotary lends itself very well to the hydrogen, and only about 75 per cent pure hydrogen, and we see that as a long-term development for it.” Mr Spender notes the advances Mazda has made already, using the rotary with hydrogen fuel.
“We’ve got two vehicle lines that we’re applying that to. We’ve got the RX-8 Hydrogen, which we’re using in our project in Norway, and that’s direct hydrogen fuel.
“The one I’m excited about is the hydrogen hybrid - we’ve got several of these on the road in Japan - the Premacy or Mazda5: an electric motor system and powertrain transmission, separate battery, and we’re using the hydrogen rotary to power the battery [as a range extender].
“So what we’ve done is separated the two technologies so when the breakthrough on batteries occurs, we can plug straight into that. Hydrogen has the generating source, it’s viable, very easy to do, comparatively speaking, and of course completely green.” Mr Spender warns that battery technology as it stands today is not good enough to put into production.
“The real issue with hybrids is batteries, despite what others would say. Batteries have got to be about seven times more efficient and 40 times less costly before the technology is production-applicable. It is some ways off, I think.
“We are trying to position ourselves so that we can actually pick those technologies up when the big breakthroughs start to occur.”
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