The new CX-60 crossover, Mazda’s first plug-in hybrid, will ride on the company’s “multisolution” platform, which supports a range of powertrains. The platform underpins three other new crossovers.
TOKYO — Internal combustion stalwart Mazda Motor Corp. will introduce a range of recently developed electrified powertrains with its new large product platform debuting this year.
Last year, Mazda revised its electrification plan, saying electric vehicles would account for a quarter of global sales in 2030, with the rest of its portfolio employing some other form of electrification.
But executives are now saying that outlook is already in need of another upgrade.
"Frankly speaking, considering the latest trends of regulation in Europe and the United States, 25 percent should not be enough," Yasuhiro Aoyama, Mazda's global sales and marketing chief, told Automotive News. New targets are expected to be floated when the carmaker updates its midterm business plan this spring, he said, although he declined to say what they might be.
Mazda’s current and soon-to-arrive global electrified offerings:
Electric vehicles: MX-30, CX-30
Plug-in hybrids: CX-60
Full hybrids: Mazda2 Hybrid
Mild hybrids: Mazda2, Mazda3, MX-30, CX-30, CX-60
The new rear-wheel-drive platform will be Mazda's bridge to a separate dedicated EV platform, called Skyactiv EV Scalable Architecture, that arrives around 2025 and will accommodate full-size EVs.
The strategy underscores how Mazda, a smaller automaker with a limited R&D budget, is racing to catch up on EVs but remains committed to internal combustion past 2030.
Until its EVs gain traction, the automaker based in Hiroshima, Japan, will endeavor to make the most of its wide-range of internal combustion technologies — eking out ever-better fuel efficiency.
The large product platform that underpins four crossovers — the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90 — arrives this year. It will sustain models for the next 10 to 15 years, Aoyama said.
Mazda calls it a "multisolution" platform. And true to the name, the rwd architecture supports all-wheel-drive setups and a range of powertrains that include a new inline six-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine, a 48-volt mild-hybrid system and the company's first plug-in hybrid setup, for the CX-60.
Moreover, Mazda is planning an inline-six variant of its Skyactiv-X engine, up from the current four-banger.
And in a world that has all but disowned diesel engines, Mazda is doubling down on that technology with a newly developed 3.3-liter inline six-cylinder engine for Europe and Japan.
"We will gradually shift to the electric-exclusive scalable architecture in the latter half of the 2020s," Aoyama said. "In the meantime, we will fully leverage the multisolution architecture."
The automaker’s coming electrification technologies
Skyactiv EV Scalable Architecture: A new dedicated electric vehicle platform that covers multiple segments and debuts around 2025
e-Skyactiv PHEV: Plug-in hybrid system that mates a 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder Skyactiv-G gasoline engine to a 17.8-kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery and 129-kilowatt electric motor
e-Skyactiv D: A mild-hybrid system that combines a 3.3-liter 6-cylinder diesel engine with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that acts as a motor assist to the engine
Mazda is betting on further gains from internal combustion, especially if fuel-burning engines are paired with electrification or new power sources such as e-fuels, biodiesel or hydrogen.
Even the e-Skyactiv D mild-hybrid system, which mates a 48-volt motor assist setup to the new diesel engine, can achieve the environmental performance of a full hybrid, said Senior Managing Executive Officer Ichiro Hirose, Mazda's global R&D chief.
The engine can also run on biofuel, breathing extended life into the diesel technology, he said.
"One of our missions is to boost the efficiency of internal combustion to the max," Hirose said. "When biofuels become available, we think there is a huge opportunity for greater application of diesel engines. We believe there will come a day when diesel engines make a comeback."
Hirose: Efficiency “to the max”
Mazda's new plug-in hybrid system will be deployed in the U.S., Europe and Japan. It mates a 2.5-liter, four-cylinder Skyactiv-G gasoline engine to a 17.8-kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery and a 129-kilowatt electric motor. Total system output is 241 kW, or about 328 hp. The setup, called e-Skyactiv PHEV, can cover 0 to 62 mph in 5.8 seconds and drive about 39 miles in EV mode.
Meanwhile, the new diesel engine delivers 245 hp and does 0 to 62 mph in 7.3 seconds. Brawny torque is its intended selling point.
Those specifications are indicative of the drivetrains Mazda will introduce in its other large vehicles and in other markets.
Looking to 2030, Mazda's road map will require a huge ramp-up in electrification.
Mazda expects global sales of all types of vehicles to rise to 1.8 million in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. Assuming worldwide volume at that level or higher in 2030, Mazda's current plan would amount to at least 450,000 EVs by then.
Mazda currently sells only a smattering of electrified vehicles, including mild hybrids and a fully electric version of the MX-30 compact crossover. But sales are paltry. From April to December 2021, the only tallies the company has made public, Mazda sold 10,157 battery-electrics and 74,277 hybrids globally. By comparison, Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest seller of electrified vehicles, sold 229,915 of them in December alone — nearly three times Mazda's nine-month total.
"We are in a transitional period toward electrification, which means that internal combustion engines are still in the mix," said Takeji Kojima, managing executive officer in charge of product strategy and R&D administration. "There are many challenges to overcome, and they will not be solved by a single solution, nor will they be achieved all at once."
Naoto Okamura contributed to this report.
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