Europe’s recently announced Euro 7 emissions regulations may have forced some fresh investment here and there, but few car makers seem to be doing proper research and development on brand-new combustion engines any more. Most have other priorities - and whether they’re quite the right ones still remains a matter of debate.
Mazda - as ever - is a little different. It believes in a global decarbonisation strategy that makes room for piston engines while there’s still call for them, and while they can still be made more efficient. And, as the new Mazda CX-60 e-SkyActiv D clearly demonstrates, in the case of the bigger ones in particular, they absolutely can.
The firm’s product renewal schedule happens to have just delivered a new family of larger, longways-engined SUVs: the CX-60 last year, the larger seven-seat Mazda CX-80 to Europe later this year, and their related 70- and 90-suffixed siblings to markets elsewhere in the world. And, because the markets in which those cars will sell still have an appetite for combustion engines (Japan itself remains fairly EV-sceptical), they need new big engines to match - both petrol and diesel - in addition to hybrid and plug-in hybrid options.
That’s how it is that the Mazda CX-60, which launched in the UK last year in four-cylinder PHEV form, is now getting a box-fresh, 3.3-litre straight-six turbo diesel engine - whose appearance, to European eyes at least, may seem something of an anachronism. Why put an only mildly hybridised six-cylinder diesel into a mid-sized, premium-priced SUV, then, at a time when so many customers apparently wouldn’t contemplate spending premium-level cash on a car that didn’t come with a plug? The answer, as Mazda has it, is pretty simple: in a car of this size, a six-cylinder diesel is actually cleaner and more economical than a four-pot.
As Heiko Strietzel, manager of the powertrain development team behind the unit, explains, a bigger engine can produce the torque necessary to cover most of the propulsive needs of the CX-60 at lower loads, revs and combustion temperatures than an equivalent four-pot. By applying an innovative new piston design, and a fuel injection technology called DCPCI (Distribution-Controlled Partially Premixed Compression Ignition), that six-cylinder engine can more than offset the impacts of its greater mass, friction and swept capacity simply by remaining in a closely controlled, lean-burn state of operation for longer than a four-pot might.
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Interesting comments about the interior and door handles. Mazda quality is generally at or near the top of class. New suppliers?
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