Mazda commits to diesel and petrol powertrains

Mazda has made a long term commitment to developing new generation petrol and diesel engines which it said would have better fuel consumption and lower C02 emissions.

Phil Waring, Mazda Europe’s chief operating officer, confirmed the brand is currently developing its Sky G petrol and Sky D diesel powertrains which he said will offer 30 per cent fuel economy savings by 2015.

Savings
Waring said every new model after the Mazda5 will also have a 100kg weight saving. Additionally every new car now has a €400 cost saving after an internal review of its production processes.

“We’re improving our technologies and will make significant improvements to the internal combustion engine over the next five to 10 years,” he said.

Traditional engines
While the brand will develop hybrid technologies it’s main focus will be on traditional petrol and diesel engines.

Waring also confirmed that the business would return to profitability with rising sales in China helping to offset some of its European losses.

“Mazda in the current financial year will have an operating profit. For a little company we’ve made a reasonably successful fist of what the economy has thrown at us,” he said.

Strategies
In a wide ranging address to a small number of UK journalists, Waring outlined the carmakers’ current and future strategies.

“It will take five years to recover 2007 volumes,” he said.

Mazda’s UK operations closed 2009 on 47,934 units, down 4 per cent on 2008, although it increased its market share from 2.3 to 2.4 per cent.