In an age when automakers are being pushed to reduce emissions and use less of the precious oil-based fuels we are extracting out of the ground and processing at great cost (both financial and environmental), most have turned to hybrids, fully-electric vehicles, all-natrual biodiesel and even hydrogen. However, all of the aforementioned ideas are a bit tricky to implement in a world where 95% of all cars still run on diesel or petrol.
We have a very long way to go before alternatives means of propulsion begin to properly rival the two main established fuel types. Hybrids and EVs require expensive and highly-toxic batteries, while biodiesel is still not widespread enough to really make it viable (diesel engines need to be modified to cope with it, and the latest ones, with their high-pressure injection systems, turbochargers and particulate filters will not run on it at all).
Not even hydrogen, which is the most abundant chemical element in the universe can be extracted easily, and the process of obtaining it uses a lot of electricity, and therefor is not really green at all. So, for the near future (10 – 15, maybe 20 years) improving and updating the technology we already have and use is a much better philosophy than investing billions into complicated and contrived hybrid systems, which don`t really justify themselves – they may be more efficient than conventional powertrains, but they are expensive to produce and develop, and the improvements they offer simply do not offset the balance in their favor.
One manufacturer which has always done things differently, is Mazda. Aside from their well-known rotary engined cars, the last of which went out of production this year (the RX8), they have always strived to make their cars fun to drive, as well as efficient. Now, with the advent of their SKYACTIV program, this philosophy has been taken to a whole new level, and if what they`ve done so far is just the start, we are curious to see what they will come up in the coming years.
The idea behind SKYACTIV is taking the technology and techniques that we already have, and making them better in every single way. Instead of working around the problem, my making everything overly-complicated, they are tackling everything head-on, and they`re all the better for it. They are making everything lighter, more efficient, stronger and better in order not to overburden their cars with excessive strengthening (which adds weight), or excessive filtering, or overly-fiddely components which are tricky and expensive to manufacture
.
The first thing they looked at was reducing the weight of their chassis, while improving its rigidity, in order for their cars to handle as a Mazda should, as well as use less fuel in the process. They coupled these new, lighter and stronger chassis with revised engines, which are currently just as good, if not better than anything Europe has to offer. They used lightweight components in the construction of the engine, as well as innovative technologies, to extract as much energy as possible from every single drop of burnt fuel. I`m not going to get into the technical side of things right now, but let’s just say they are definitely on to something.
This is the proper way to go about rethinking the car, in order for it to cope with our ever-changing needs – making it better, while making it simple. Mazda’s new Six, equipped with the new 2.2-liter diesel engine is one of the most efficient and advanced cars on the market, with efficiency figures comparable to those of a hybrid, yet with none of the drawbacks (extra weight, lackluster performance).
The other automakers are all getting aboard the hybrid and EV train, as the idea is really ‘in’ right now. But what if, in the coming years (decades), batteries (the kind we have now) will be deemed too toxic and harfmul to the environment to be produced, and we may be forced to turn back to internal combustion for the answer. This is merely a hypothesis, but with ever-stricter rules and regulations governing everything, it may very well happen. Mazda is striving to bring the car, in the form we know and love, to the next level, simply by refining everything, and not changing/replacing in order to achieve set goals.
If all manufacturers did this, right now, we would genuinely begin to see a lowering of our dependency on oil much much sooner, as people would buy these conventional-yet-very-efficient cars, which drive like you are used to, don`t feature too many buttons and don`t run on anything more exotic than petrol or diesel. The new owners would be putting regular fuels into the tanks of these cars, but they would be putting less of it in, on a much wider scale than hybrids or fuel-cell vehicles could ever feasibly achieve in the short term
.
The main idea is this: the alternative means of propulsion are all great, and they show us what the future will be like, and all the aforementioned technologies have a lot of potential, and probably will all get adopted and adapted on a wider scale in the future. What we need now is not to rethink the whole idea of the car, but rather improve what we already have, because the effect of that will be far more immediate.
Being the impatient beings that we are, we want to see fast results to our actions, and if philosophies similar to SKYACTIV would be adopted by all manufactures, beginning with the next generation of cars, most of which would appear in the next 5 years, the effect would be dramatic. If all cars used 20 to 30% less fuel, the math is simple – WE would be using 20 to 30% less fuel and that has absolutely no bad connotations linked to it.
Think of all the billions being invested into hybrids right now – all (or at least part of) that money could be rerouted, in order for the engineers and designers behind the conventional cars that we currently drive (and still will for quite a while) to make larger and quicker improvements. I`m not saying cut automakers’ green budgets completely, but we really need to be realistic about this and realize that oil is something we`ve gotten ourselves into, and it will be very hard to break the cycle. We can limit the extent of the damage we are doing to the planet with what we have, before the alternatives become properly feasible.
Not even hydrogen, which is the most abundant chemical element in the universe can be extracted easily, and the process of obtaining it uses a lot of electricity, and therefor is not really green at all. So, for the near future (10 – 15, maybe 20 years) improving and updating the technology we already have and use is a much better philosophy than investing billions into complicated and contrived hybrid systems, which don`t really justify themselves – they may be more efficient than conventional powertrains, but they are expensive to produce and develop, and the improvements they offer simply do not offset the balance in their favor.
One manufacturer which has always done things differently, is Mazda. Aside from their well-known rotary engined cars, the last of which went out of production this year (the RX8), they have always strived to make their cars fun to drive, as well as efficient. Now, with the advent of their SKYACTIV program, this philosophy has been taken to a whole new level, and if what they`ve done so far is just the start, we are curious to see what they will come up in the coming years.
The idea behind SKYACTIV is taking the technology and techniques that we already have, and making them better in every single way. Instead of working around the problem, my making everything overly-complicated, they are tackling everything head-on, and they`re all the better for it. They are making everything lighter, more efficient, stronger and better in order not to overburden their cars with excessive strengthening (which adds weight), or excessive filtering, or overly-fiddely components which are tricky and expensive to manufacture
.
The first thing they looked at was reducing the weight of their chassis, while improving its rigidity, in order for their cars to handle as a Mazda should, as well as use less fuel in the process. They coupled these new, lighter and stronger chassis with revised engines, which are currently just as good, if not better than anything Europe has to offer. They used lightweight components in the construction of the engine, as well as innovative technologies, to extract as much energy as possible from every single drop of burnt fuel. I`m not going to get into the technical side of things right now, but let’s just say they are definitely on to something.
This is the proper way to go about rethinking the car, in order for it to cope with our ever-changing needs – making it better, while making it simple. Mazda’s new Six, equipped with the new 2.2-liter diesel engine is one of the most efficient and advanced cars on the market, with efficiency figures comparable to those of a hybrid, yet with none of the drawbacks (extra weight, lackluster performance).
The other automakers are all getting aboard the hybrid and EV train, as the idea is really ‘in’ right now. But what if, in the coming years (decades), batteries (the kind we have now) will be deemed too toxic and harfmul to the environment to be produced, and we may be forced to turn back to internal combustion for the answer. This is merely a hypothesis, but with ever-stricter rules and regulations governing everything, it may very well happen. Mazda is striving to bring the car, in the form we know and love, to the next level, simply by refining everything, and not changing/replacing in order to achieve set goals.
If all manufacturers did this, right now, we would genuinely begin to see a lowering of our dependency on oil much much sooner, as people would buy these conventional-yet-very-efficient cars, which drive like you are used to, don`t feature too many buttons and don`t run on anything more exotic than petrol or diesel. The new owners would be putting regular fuels into the tanks of these cars, but they would be putting less of it in, on a much wider scale than hybrids or fuel-cell vehicles could ever feasibly achieve in the short term
.
The main idea is this: the alternative means of propulsion are all great, and they show us what the future will be like, and all the aforementioned technologies have a lot of potential, and probably will all get adopted and adapted on a wider scale in the future. What we need now is not to rethink the whole idea of the car, but rather improve what we already have, because the effect of that will be far more immediate.
Being the impatient beings that we are, we want to see fast results to our actions, and if philosophies similar to SKYACTIV would be adopted by all manufactures, beginning with the next generation of cars, most of which would appear in the next 5 years, the effect would be dramatic. If all cars used 20 to 30% less fuel, the math is simple – WE would be using 20 to 30% less fuel and that has absolutely no bad connotations linked to it.
Think of all the billions being invested into hybrids right now – all (or at least part of) that money could be rerouted, in order for the engineers and designers behind the conventional cars that we currently drive (and still will for quite a while) to make larger and quicker improvements. I`m not saying cut automakers’ green budgets completely, but we really need to be realistic about this and realize that oil is something we`ve gotten ourselves into, and it will be very hard to break the cycle. We can limit the extent of the damage we are doing to the planet with what we have, before the alternatives become properly feasible.
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