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Feann Torr1 Sept 2014
NEWS

Mazda undecided on hybrid future direction

Global sales boss says fuel-sipping diesel hybrid far from done deal

The promise of becoming Japan's first car maker to offer a diesel-electric hybrid engine is not enough to ensure it gets the green light, says one of Mazda's most senior executives.

Yasuhiro Aoyama, Mazda's General Manager of Global Sales and Marketing, poured cold water on the idea that the company would release a diesel hybrid in early 2017, as reported by Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun.

"We haven't decided any type of future for hybrid tech. There is a lot of thought about what we can do, but we are still investigating about what can be the most efficient and reasonable next step for us," he said.

In late 2013 Mazda revealed a Mazda3 hybrid car that runs a 2.0-litre SKYACTIV petrol engine alongside a small electric motor hooked up to a battery, delivering fuel consumption of under 4.0L/100km on the combined cycle.

It is only sold in Japan at present.

Mazda is committed to expanding its hybrid range, but its next hybrid engine after the 2.0-litre petrol-electric unit could be diesel or petrol. And the company is not saying which car will be hybridised next, with the Mazda6, Mazda2 and CX-5 all likely candidates.

"In the Japanese market hybrid is a major segment. The hybrid should remain one of the major powertrains in Japan, so we need to be competing in this arena," said Aoyama.

While many of its Asian and indeed European rivals have been developing petrol- and diesel-electric engines for more than decade, Mazda has arrived late to the hybrid party. But it's not something that concerns Aoyama-san.

He noted the company's focus was on reducing its fleet-wide CO2 emissions via its range of SKYACTIV petrol and diesel engines.

"Before getting into hybrid tech itself we need to make more efficient in the ICE [internal combustion engine] area without considering that we can use supplemental devices to make better efficiency. At first, let's make the best efficiency ICE and then go into the next stage.

"We are still developing SKYACTIV and there's much we can do."

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