SKY engines here in 2011

The 'SKY-G' (for 'gasoline') direct-injection petrol engine will be introduced to the Australian market next year, says Mazda's head of global marketing, sales and customer service, Masazumi Wakayama. We'll also see the SKY-D (diesel) engine here at some point in the future, but Wakayama-san, who has been out for here a visit, won't reveal even a rough timeframe for the ultra-frugal oiler.

Mazda has previously committed to improving the fuel economy of its entire product range 30 per cent by 2015. The SKY engines are critical to that aim, by providing an important first step in improving Mazda's engine base efficiency; so too the 'SKY-Drive' six-speed automatic transmission developed in parallel with the engines and claimed by Mazda to approach twin-clutch transmissions for fuel efficiency.

And for those who have been waiting forever for Mazda to offer their diesels with an automatic transmission, your time has almost come. The SKY-Drive transmission will be available with the SKY-D engine "from launch" and will result in fuel efficiency gains of about five per cent over a current-technology epicyclic transmission.

Mazda has recently confirmed it's entering a hybrid-technology-sharing agreement with Toyota and the SKY engines will be an integral part of the company's migration to hybrid-drive production cars, but not necessarily for some time.

Mazda's first hybrid-drive car will reach the Japanese domestic market in 2013 and while Wakayama-san wouldn't admit it, there's reason to believe it will be a stand-alone hybrid model of a bespoke nature, like the Prius. Interestingly, Wakayama-san also would not disclose precisely what the agreement between Mazda and Toyota contained, so we have no way of knowing whether the agreement extends to 'plug-in' hybrid technology, which Toyota is preparing to introduce, with the Prius running lithium-ion batteries. Mazda's hybrids will run Nickel-Metal Hydride technology.

Whatever the case for hybrids, according to Wakayama-san, it's essential Mazda has the fundamentals in place before adopting the 'add-ons' -- and the hybrid drivetrain system is very much an 'add-on'.

"We believe that the most important thing for us is to further improve the efficiency of the base engine," said Wakayama-san through an interpreter. "The reason for me saying that is that the technology society is going to move towards may be electric vehicles. However, such electric vehicles... will probably only account for 10 or 15 per cent, even in 2020.

"Concerning that huge ratio the internal combustion engine will still account for, even in 2020, the important thing for us is to improve and maximise the efficiency of this engine -- the internal combustion engine.

"Then, after maximising the efficiency... we can step-by-step introduce some electric [ie: hybrid] technologies; for example: 'i-stop', our idling-stop technology and then regenerative braking and then hybrid system. So we have this kind of phase-in approach, which we call 'building-block' strategy.

"80 per cent or 90 per cent of all vehicles will still have the internal combustion. Therefore, we need to maximise and optimise the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. That's what we're trying to achieve."

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