Mazda suspends deliveries of all-new ‘6’

MAZDA Australia has suspended deliveries of its recently released ‘6’ mid-size sedan and wagon after identifying a technical issue affecting its ground-breaking i-Eloop brake energy regeneration system.

It is unclear at this stage how long dealers will have to postpone deliveries, or whether the issue will result in a recall of the roughly 1500 units sold since the local launch last December.

GoAuto understands the issue involves circuitry in the DC/DC converter situated at the back of the i-Eloop system, which is responsible for converting power generated from the brakes into usable power for the car’s ancillaries.

It is understood there are no identified issues with either the brake energy regeneration itself, or in the capacitor that temporarily stores this energy.

Mazda Australia public relations manager Steve Maciver confirmed the existence of the issue to GoAuto this morning, but said the company’s local arm was still communicating with head office in Japan to determine the specifics.

“We have identified a quality concern with Mazda6, we’re investigating exactly what that is right now and working very closely with MMC (Mazda Motor Corporation) to establish what the concern is and what our course of action has to be,” he said.

“But yes, we have suspended deliveries of Mazda6 until we find out exactly what is going on.”

Mr Maciver said Mazda Australia was also looking into exactly how many cars that had been sold but are awaiting delivery will be affected.

The Mazda6 was the first model to get the i-Eloop system, which unlike other similar brake energy recapture systems uses a capacitor to power the vehicle’s ancillary units. The company claims fuel consumption reduction of 10 per cent.

Most systems of this type use batteries, but capacitors are able to charge and discharge more rapidly and suffer fewer issues with deterioration.

Since going on sale in December, the Mazda6 has been easily the second most popular car in its segment, behind the fleet-favoured Toyota Camry but ahead of the Honda Accord Euro, Ford Mondeo and Hyundai i40.

In January, it even took top spot in segment sales with 750 sales.