Mazda has a lot invested in what it calls “SkyActiv” technology: it was introduced as a powertrain option for the Mazda3 in 2011, then as the entire engineering principle for the CX-5 in 2012 and the Mazda6 this year.
Problem is, it’s not that easy to explain what SkyActiv is; even when you work for the company. At the launch of the CX-5 last year, I asked one of Mazda’s marketing brains whether he could explain it to me in a sentence. He could not.
It was an unfair question, because it’s a concept rather than a specific piece of technology. But with the benefit of now having had a year to think about it, allow me to have a go anyway: it’s a commitment to make conventional automotive technology as efficient as possible by redesigning it from scratch.
SkyActiv is more than a marketing buzzword because anything that wears the brand is bespoke. These new engines, transmissions and platforms are engineered around low-friction, light weight – anything that will increase efficiency and make the host cars more economical.
That includes integrated technology and ancillaries such as stop/start and Mazda’s i-Eloop technology, a brake energy regeneration system that uses an on-board capacitor to store and distribute energy to run the car’s electrics.
SkyActiv technology will underpin every new Mazda model in the immediate future. There will be six more of those in the next four years – even taking into account a new Mazda2 and Mazda3, that still leaves room for a few surprises.
David Linklater
Sun, 24 Mar 2013
Sun, 24 Mar 2013
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Mazda SkyActiv: reinventing the technology
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