Japan's top automaker believes technological breakthroughs, such as hydrogen engines, can give internal combustion a new lease on life — saving jobs as well as the environment.

Mazda launches several new crossovers this year, in an upmarket shift betting that going bigger is better.

The rollout makes good on a promise to resurrect the blade-twirling powerplant after retiring the technology with the discontinued RX-8 in 2012.

To crack the code of building low-cost electric vehicles, Japan's automakers intend to leverage their skills at tried-and-true lean manufacturing and kaizen.

The product surge comes as Mazda repositions its lineup toward the hot-selling utility vehicle segment and tries to move upmarket with bigger, more powerful offerings.

The production upgrades at the Hofu H2 assembly plant in western Japan will underpin upcoming production of new vehicles.

Mazda will suspend production at its two domestic factories for two days in April as factors including a rise in COVID-19 cases in China cause supply disruptions.

Japan's automakers are stoking R&D investment to meet mounting demand for a staggering array of technologies. Toyota by far outpaces the pack.

A product blitz starting this year will transform Mazda's global lineup. It's going with larger and electrified vehicles that it bets will boost U.S. sales to record levels in just four years.

Mazda says U.S. demand for its vehicles is robust enough to support price hikes, as the company notches record-low incentives on crimped production and tight inventories.

The Corolla Cross H2 Concept is just one of many advancements in hydrogen combustion that Toyota rolled out at Fuji Speedway. Toyota is about 40 percent of the way toward commercializing its hydrogen combustion technology, a top executive says.