Cheaper diesel for Mazda3

Mazda Australia will offer a new downsized diesel version of the '3' that will be cheaper than the upcoming Mazda3 XD Astina sports hatch.

The first diesel-powered variant of the new Mazda3, which was released in February, was last month confirmed to hit Australian showrooms on September 1.

Pricing has not been announced, but expect the hatch-only Mazda3 XD Astina to arrive at a price premium over the petrol-powered SP25 Astina (from $36,190).

Our guess is the first third-generation Mazda3 diesel, which is powered by the same 129kW/420Nm 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine as seen in the Mazda6 and CX-5, will be priced from around $38,990.

The first ever Mazda3 diesel automatic would logically be priced $2000 higher at $41,990, positioning it as a premium-priced oil-burning performance hatch with the same high level of standard equipment as the top-shelf Astina SP25s.

However, motoring.com.au has learned a smaller-capacity 1.5-litre diesel version of the Mazda3 is also in the works, making diesel power more accessible than ever before in a small Mazda.

At $29,715, the previous manual-only Mazda3 Diesel, which accounted for just one per cent of all Mazda3 sales, commanded a $2870 premium over the mid-range Maxx Sport petrol on which it was based.

When it arrives next year, the 1.5-litre Mazda3 diesel is likely to be available in both sedan and hatchback form, as well as with manual and automatic transmissions, but may not come as an entry-level model.

Nevertheless, it will be significantly cheaper than the Mazda3 XD Astina at well under $30,000, making it the most accessible diesel Mazda ever.

Such a model would compete with affordable small diesels like the Hyundai i30 CRDi, which is powered by a 1.6-litre turbo-diesel and priced from $23,590 in mid-range Active specification.

The downsized diesel could also set a new efficiency benchmark for the Mazda3, which was outsold by the Toyota Corolla for the second month in a row in May but remains Australia's top-selling new vehicle this year.

Mazda has said the combined fuel consumption of the upcoming Mazda3 XD Astina hatch should be as low at 5.0L/100km – significantly less than the 2.0- and 2.5-litre petrol models already sold here, thanks in part to i-ELOOP.

The Japanese brand's innovative capacitor-based regenerative braking technology was first seen here in the latest Mazda6, but will make its Australian debut in the Mazda3 XD Astina.

The smaller-displacement diesel engine should make the Mazda3 even more efficient, with fuel consumption that could rival hybrids like Toyota's Prius (3.9L/100km).

The new 1.5-litre SKYACTIV-D turbo-diesel is expected to first appear in the new Mazda2 later this year, but will not be available in Mazda's smallest model in Australia.

Global sales and marketing chief Masahiro Moro told motoring.com.au that Mazda will produce a "value diesel" version of the Mazda3 "some time later".

He said it would be positioned below the Mazda3 XD Astina, which was deliberately marketed as a performance diesel hatch – complete with red grille accents – to compete head-on with oil-burning luxury cars from Germany.

"In Japan we positioned Mazda3 diesel as premium," he said. "We realised other imported brands were taking quite big market share, so we purposefully used diesel to take market share from them."

Moro-san said diesel passenger car sales in Japan were practically non-existent in 2007, but since then had grown eight-fold due largely to the CX-5, which now accounts for 80 per cent of the diesel segment.

"Diesel was seen as a dirty, toxic fuel, but clean premium diesels are changing that," he said.

In Australia, diesel models account for half the sales of some luxury brands, partly due to their high proportion of SUV sales, while half of all vehicle sales in Europe are diesel.

Mazda Australia chief Martin Benders said the Mazda3 XD Astina would be also positioned as a premium performance hatch locally, in the same way the Mazda6 diesel allows the Japanese brand to target buyers of mid-size German models.

"We're quite happy to have it as a premium model," he said. "It's quite a big engine in a small car."

Asked if Mazda Australia would supplement the 2.2-litre Mazda3 XD Astina with a lower-priced, smaller-capacity diesel-powered model, Benders said: "Maybe we will, but with a different engine".