Mazda Announces Breakthrough In Long-Coveted Engine Technology (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Mazda Motor Corp said it would become the world's first automaker to commercialize a much more efficient petrol engine using technology that deep-pocketed rivals have been trying to engineer for decades, a twist in an industry increasingly going electric. The new compression ignition engine is 20 percent to 30 percent more fuel efficient than the Japanese automaker's current engines and uses a technology that has eluded the likes of Daimler AG and General Motors Co. Mazda, with a research and development (R&D) budget a fraction of those of major peers, said it plans to sell cars with the new engine from 2019. A homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine ignites petrol through compression, eliminating spark plugs. Its fuel economy potentially matches that of a diesel engine without high emissions of nitrogen oxides or sooty particulates. Mazda's engine employs spark plugs under certain conditions, such as at low temperatures, to overcome technical hurdles that have hampered commercialization of the technology.

Comments

Re:Too little, too late

[Jack9]

> Fossil fuel vehicles are phased out in three years worldwide, no matter where you go

What do you mean by phased out? How much do you want to bet that fossil fuel vehicles will not only still be produced, but used more than electric in 3 years worldwide? I will be happy to escrow a few thousand dollars on my prediction (that's all I can spare and I will use the winnings for financing an electric vehicle). We can use active US car registrations as a measure, if you really want to go forward.

How many US families (from a very wealthy nation) do you think have the economic capacity to buy new electric vehicles, much less 2 year depreciated ones? How many of those will there be? Where's the infrastructure to power these vehicles? I know where many electric stations are from San Diego, CA to the Oregon border but you drive right by a Tesla facility who made that happen. In the rest of the northwest US, not so much. India? Hah.

I don't think your statement is well considered. Perhaps you have a skewed idea of what humans will tolerate to maintain an illusion of normalcy (spoiler: almost anything short-term to avoid committing to change).

Re:Too little, too late

[rickb928]

"Fossil fuel vehicles are phased out in three years worldwide,"

Um, no. The used car market makes that unlikely.

And when my 80 mile a day commute doesn't require fast charging at work to make it home with a 5-10% margin, most likely impacted by unpredictable traffic, I'm in. Or, do the other, mch harder thing - make my work, job stability, and income possible closer to home. I'll fix the 'problem' with more efficient cars over the next 10-12 ears, then 'retire'. Maybe.

Or, alternatively, start using honest, accurate data to judge climate change and influences. Go where the honest data leads you.

Re:Too little, too late

[JaredOfEuropa]

In my country: 33% CO2 emissions from transportation (and we do a lot of that). Almost half of that is ships, the other half road transportation (47% of transport, or 15% of total). About half that is transport of people, making up just over 8% of total CO2. Swapping every single car and bus for an electric model charged with 100% renewable electricity will net you an 8% savings on CO2 (2014 figures). The actual savings are likely to be a lot lower, and come at considerable cost to people. Better to focus on something else?

Cars are a popular "environmental" target here because of the common misconception about these figures; it makes the seriously high taxes on them easy to sell as both the left and the right still feel guilty about driving.

Re:Convenience of electric - except in winter

[caseih]

This is wishful thinking. It may be true in very dense urban centers, but it is less and less likely to be true anytime soon out in suburbia, and even less likely in rural areas where farms operate and grow food that everyone in the urban centers is dependent on.

Personally I'd love to see a day when I can have a fully-electric, battery-operated tractor, combine, or semi truck that can operate at high power output ranges for 12 hours or more at a stretch (and recharge very quickly). But realistically I don't expect to see this in my lifetime.

Re:Too little, too late

[Rei]

90 minutes? What year is this, 2005? Supercharging is half an hour to 80%. And herp, derp, humans have to eat at some point.

And I love how much you're willing to damn an EV for even the slightest increase in long-distance trip time (most people taking 500 mile trips rather rarely), but are perfectly content to need to at random intervals in your normal everyday life have to divert from your schedule and go out of your way to a gas station, stand outside in whatever weather there is and pump gasoline (which gives off carcinogenic fumes) in a "shithole". And FYI, gas stations are much more likely to be "shitholes" than superchargers. Here's a random list of supercharger photo pictures (flickr, so it should be by and large just random people's snapshots). How much of a "shithole" do they look like to you?