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Whether you want to call it the next version of the SkyActiv technology, the new engine developed by Mazda will soon be in the Mazda3.
This engine is made to create more of what we want in the power we’ve been looking for while also offering more of what regulations are asking for with efficiency and lower emissions. You might not have thought it possible to have an engine that can handle giving us more of everything without forced induction, but Mazda has done it and we will see this engine soon.
How Does this Engine Work?
The new engine is called a Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine and it was first shown to the public in January. This engine works much like a diesel engine by using compression to ignite the air-fuel mixture rather than using spark plugs. This allows the engine to offer a burn of this mixture that’s lean and offered to be much better for the drive without the emissions that are part of what some of the engines on the market today cause us to deal with and need to be removed from the driving experience.
The result of this compression burn is the fact that the engines offered will provide a 20 to 30 percent increase in efficiency over the current SkyActiv-G engines that are offered on the market right now. This improvement has caught the attention of the automotive market and we certainly can’t wait to see this engine in action to enjoy what it happens to offer. The power output is said to also be increased, but we don’t have the numbers to show the percentages or know exactly how much of a bump in power this new engine will offer.
A Step Back
While this new engine from Mazda is certainly admirable and one that will make a huge improvement over what we have on the market right now, the company is taking a few slow steps. This engine will use spark plugs in the early models and there will also be the benefit of forced induction using supercharging at first as well. These two aspects will eventually be phased out over time but the technology isn’t perfect yet, but the team at Mazda wants customers to be able to continue to drive and begin to make use of this engine technology.
The purpose of the spark plugs and supercharging are to make sure this engine can operate at low temperatures. Although this HCCI engine will use the air-fuel mixture as a singular way to create combustion at first, the lower temperature air will make it extremely difficult to cause the combustion needed to get going on the road in a car powered by this engine. We’ll get a better look at what this engine is when it shows up in the Mazda3 that’s going to be offered for the 2019 model year so that you can have an amazing vehicle to enjoy out on the road with much more efficiency.
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