Mazda’s SkyActiv II platform evolves original’s basics

MAZDA says that the second-generation SkyActiv platform that will debut with the 2019 Mazda3 small car will mainly be all-new in terms of physical parts.

However, Mazda Motor Corporation director and senior managing executive officer with oversight for research and development, Kiyoshi Fujiwara, said that the evolving platform will retain many of the key design, engineering and construction elements developed for the original that debuted with the original CX-5 from late 2011.

Mr Fujiwara said this was to maximise efficiency and speed up the process of getting it to market in a timely and affordable manner.

“Of course we have carryover parts,” Mr Fujiwara said at a media event in Frankfurt showcasing the new technology.

“But we do not care about having parts commonisation, we have always considered architectures should be common. Which means the parts themselves can be different but the characteristics or some of the construction architecture should be the same. This is because we have to save the manpower in the development of the vehicles and their new technologies.”

Mr Fujiwara added that using the same basic chassis templates and parameters as before, but spending on new components was more beneficial for a comparatively small company like Mazda as it can save valuable time.

“That is because we have limited human resources, and therefore if we have a common architecture we can utilise the same computer aided engineering (CAE) models, for example,” he explained.

“We don’t have enough time to again make these CAE models. That’s why we are focusing on the common architecture, common characteristics. Therefore we don’t care about commonisation. It’s better for us.”

While Mazda will not divulge more information on the SkyActiv II platform until sometime next year, Mr Fujiwara revealed that it would be lighter than the existing version.

“The platform will be the equivalent or less weight than the current one,” he said. “But the SkyActiv-G comes with a little bit of extra weight with the ‘Air Supply’ (compression charge tech).”