'Zoom-Zoom' is evolving

Hybrids are fashionable in Japan, and no wonder. Those highly urbanised Japanese based in the country's busier population centres live in a perpetual traffic jam.

Japan is a traffic environment in which hybrid-drive vehicles are incomparable for fuel conservation. If the car's not moving, it doesn't need the engine idling and if traffic is moving at walking pace or slower, there's still no need for a high-output internal combustion engine when a low-output electric motor will achieve the same ends.

Hybrids are growing in popularity and two different models have led overall sales during the last 12 months (see our separate story concerning the sales success of the Prius) -- and neither of them have been a Mazda.

It's a conundrum for the 'Zoom-Zoom' brand (from its slogan for driving enjoyment). While the company has conducted a lot of work on eco-friendly hydrogen-fuelled RX-8s, hydrogen is still very much a long-term prospect among emerging alternative fuels -- and it's just not as sexy as hybrid-drive vehicles.

Mazda admits that at least 80 per cent of motor vehicles are likely to remain internal-combustion powered by 2020 and you can bet the vast majority of those will be fossil-fuel burners. The principal stumbling block to a hydrogen economy and society is the lack of infrastructure for supplying the volatile gas.

So the company has signed an agreement with Toyota to build hybrid-drive vehicles using Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive technology, as seen in the Prius and the locally-built Camry Hybrid. It's a stop-gap on the way to electric vehicles or hydrogen-combustion vehicles -- but a necessary one, for marketing as much as anything else. It's like a company must have at least one hybrid-drive model in its arsenal to sell cars in any sort of number within the Japanese domestic market. If you can't sell a hybrid, you're just not doing your bit for the environment.

Mazda's visiting senior executive for global marketing, sales and customer service, Masazumi Wakayama revealed to Aussie journalists during his visit last week that the hybrid-drive technology is a natural progression, building on the SKY technology the company is developing independently of Toyota.

"Zoom-zoom is evolving," he said during his presentation. "While we make our cars even more fun to drive, we are also strengthening our environmental strategy.

"We believe the vast majority of all cars will still have internal-combustion engines in 2020. That is why we are working to optimise these base technologies first. This will benefit our customers by minimising the cost of ownership.

"In parallel with the SKY concept [pictured]... we are also focusing on weight reduction, reduced rolling resistance and improved aerodynamics. After that, we will introduce electric devices in stages: 'I-stop' -- our engine start/stop system, which is already in some markets -- will be followed by regenerative braking and hybrid [-drive] system.

"The phased introduction of these new technologies will form the building blocks of Mazda's future."

The first Mazda hybrid is scheduled to reach production and the market in 2013, the Mazda executive advised through an interpreter.

"The first one is going to be in Japan in 2013 and we are not able to mention which specific model that hybrid engine is going to be mounted in."

Wakayama-san, when asked, stated that the Mazda hybrid models would feature older-technology Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries, rather than Lithium-ion. This is the type of battery Toyota is currently using in the Prius and the Camry Hybrid, but Toyota is also known to be working on the development of lithium-ion batteries for the Plug-in Prius, but as to whether the technology for the Plug-in Toyota is to be shared with Mazda, Wakayama-san couldn't say.

"I'm not able to disclose any details of our licensing agreement; the only thing that I can comment on is that we are going to utilise the hybrid technology seen in the Prius, so I'm not able to comment on the content of the agreement that we have -- about that plug-in hybrid."

Sounds like Mazda won't be getting a look-in at Toyota's Plug-in development...

One other concern with the Mazda hybrid initiative is that 'Zoom-Zoom' could become a bit 'Wish-Wash' with hybrid technology introduced to some of Mazda's cars well known for their spirited driving traits.

"We are going to combine our SKY-G, which embodies our 'Zoom-Zoom' brand essence with the hybrid technology that we are sharing with Toyota," Wakayama-san responded via the interpreter. "That's how we can realise our Zoom-Zoom brand essence in a hybrid vehicle."

So the hope is that any Mazda hybrid would be more in the mould of Honda's CR-Z than the Prius?

"Putting aside how the Honda CR-Z is, we are going to keep true to our 'Zoom-Zoom' brand essence," answered Wakayama-san, taking care to point out that Honda's IMA hybrid technology is different from the Toyota-developed drive system Mazda will be using. At that point, Mazda Australia's National Marketing Manager, Alastair Doak jumped in to explain how he saw the relationship between Mazda and Toyota panning out.

"A hybrid... is an add-on electric device," he began. "That's all we're buying. The hybrid [technology] helps improve low-speed fuel consumption. That's all it does, it does no more than that.

"We are not buying anything more than that from Toyota. We can tool how the car drives, how it brakes, how it steers -- what it feels like to the customer. What we've consistently said: Mazda stands for 'fun to drive' and that doesn't change. So whether it's a diesel, a petrol, a hybrid, a hydrogen-hybrid; it doesn't matter. When a customer drives our cars, they will feel exactly the same thing.

"That's what our point of difference is. That's what our brand is. I guess that other car companies have to develop a specific, sporty model to prove that they are sporty. We would argue that all of our cars are sporty."

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