Mazda Australia to evaluate future plug-in

Mazda is known to be working on a single-rotor Wankel powerplant that is designed solely to drive an electric generator for battery/electric vehicles.

That's pretty old news. As of last month, however, that development programme looks more likely than ever to bear fruit.

But what does it mean for Australia? Here, in a country where fuel is relatively affordable, and there has been a reluctance in some quarters – not least of all the executive and administrative arms of government – to accept climate change is a genuine concern, there are no legislative forces driving migration from internal combustion to electric power for cars.

Not yet, anyway.

For the moment, that leaves a high-end brand such as Tesla leading the way, but with few followers in the field of electric-vehicle technology. Mazda is conscious of buyer resistance to EVs in Australia, and that is informing the importer's cautious approach to introducing an EV here.

That said, however, Mazda is cognisant of the need to be seen leading by example.

"We are interested in the program that was recently outlined at the LAAS [Los Angeles Auto Show] by Fujiwara-San, our head of R&D," said Alastair Doak, Marketing Director for Mazda Australia.

"As specific details are still to be confirmed it is difficult for us to comment any further at this stage other than we will continue to work with our colleagues in Japan, and will evaluate potential for the Australian market in due course."

Doak did tell motoring.com.au at the press conference yesterday concerning the new CX-5 that the markets in California and Europe were compelling Mazda to develop an EV drivetrain programme for its product range.

"We have to have an electric vehicle," he said, nominating 2019 and 2020 as the deadlines for Mazda EVs to begin reaching those environmentally-conscious markets. Emissions across each car company's model range must reduce by 10 per cent, Doak explained, and that effectively mandates EVs must be part of Mazda's range. Furthermore, those EVs have to be the real deal, not petrol/electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius sold in Australia.

"Prius or [Hyundai] Ioniq won't be enough," he said. Those conventional hybrids (aside from the plug-in versions sold overseas, and the pure electric Ioniq) don't reduce fuel consumption enough to offset the emissions of conventional internal-combustion cars in each product range. It's only plug-ins and battery/electric vehicles that will have any sort of real impact on fleet consumption figures.

And bringing those vehicles to market will be costly, forcing the car companies – Mazda included – to sell them in many markets for the necessary sales volumes to establish economies of scale. So while the Australia population is not pressing Mazda for EVs and plug-ins – and nor is the federal government – the cars are likely to come here sooner or later anyway.

Our money is on range-extended Mazda3 and CX-5 EVs with the tiny little single-rotor unit and a nine-litre fuel tank for a range of around 400km between refills.