Mazda 'i-stop' reaches Oz

Mazda may be late to the party launching an auto-start system in Australia, but the company says it will be worth the wait.

The importer is providing technical and logistical support for a number of Japanese engineers out here to evaluate how 'i-stop' will cope in the Australian environment. Accompanying the engineers on the long flight from Hiroshima is a Mazda Axela (known locally as the Mazda3) fitted with the new feature.

Designed to work with direct-injection engines (the company's SKYACTIV engines specifically), the 'i-stop' system can restart an engine in 0.35 seconds -- half the time of a conventional auto-start system

Unlike conventional systems, i-stop ensures that the engine's pistons always stop at the optimum point for restarting. When the driver lifts the foot off the brake pedal, fuel is injected into the cylinder with the piston at Top Dead Centre at the start of the power stroke. The spark plug ignites the mixture and as the gases resulting from combustion push the piston down the cylinder, the starter motor engages to assist the engine starting. It is, according to Mazda, very fast and very smooth.

"The real-world fuel savings that i-stop brings has helped it to become firmly established in both Europe and Japan," Alastair Doak, Mazda Australia National Marketing Manager was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the company.

"And with much of Australian driving taking place in suburban environments, i-stop will bring significant real-world fuel savings to Australian Mazda customers from next year. i-stop is just one of the many improvements that the new SKYACTIV technologies will offer customers as Mazda strives to improve global average fuel economy by 30 percent by 2015."

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