Mazda Product Planning Puts an Internal Combustion Engine Under the Hood of Your Mazda CX-5 in 2050

Full autonomy by 2020? An all-electric automotive portfolio by 2025? Not at Mazda, where deputy general manager for product, Kenichiro Saruwatari, says the internal combustion engine will be a part of Mazda’s lineup for at least another three decades.

“We need to have the internal combustion engine,” Saruwatri told Motoring. “Even beyond 2050 we will still utilise the combustion engine.”

But just because Mazda’s plans for the future aren’t limited to hybrids, EVs, and fuel cell vehicles doesn’t mean the engines under the hood of your 2050 Mazda CX-5 will resemble the engines of today.

In fact, we expect to very shortly see the first production implementation of Mazda’s homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. In theory, adapting some diesel techniques to a gas-fired engine could decrease fuel consumption by 30 percent. That translates to a Mazda CX-5 that now travels 26 miles per gallon, for example, becoming a Mazda CX-5 that could travel 37 miles per gallon.

Mazda is clearly not the only automaker seeing big gains with the internal combustion engine. Combining weight savings and aerodynamic advances with turbocharging, less displacement, and additional transmission gears allowed Ford to build a 2.7-liter twin-turbo V6 for the F150 that consumes 25-percent less fuel, the EPA ratings say, than the less powerful 5.4-liter V8 of a decade ago.

It’s not just full-size pickup trucks that are producing meaningful improvements. A basic Mazda 3 2.0-liter drinks 19-percent less fuel now than it did a decade ago, according to EPA combined figures.

Of course, at Mazda, the 2050 viewpoint on the combustion engine is in keeping with the automaker’s anti-establishment mood.

On the subject of autonomous driving, Mazda North America boss Masahiro Moro told Bloomberg: “It’s a key technology for all manufacturers and Mazda agrees it’s going to be very important. We have full-scale autonomy in development right now.” But, says Moro, “We believe driving pleasure should never die. And we’re selling our products to a core customer who loves driving.”

Mazda isn’t targeting a mainstream audience. Mazda can’t succeed if it targets a mainstream audience. “Many customers don’t care too much about driving itself—that’s fine,” Moro says. Similarly, many customers won’t care about the means of propulsion found under the hood. And Mazda, says Moro, focuses “on a particular type of customer.”

As for Mazda’s Kenichiro Saruwatari, there’s a recognition that a regulatory environment could throw a wrench in Mazda’s plans. “It depends on government direction of course but we see a long life [for combustion engines],” Saruwatari told Motoring.

Mazda believes infrastructure will not soon be ready for a completely electric fleet. Moreover, different global markets will require different solutions, so Mazda won’t go all-in on any propulsion solution.

In the U.S., specifically, Mazda currently offers a limited variety of four-cylinder gas powerplants, including one turbocharged unit in the CX-9. A diesel-powered CX-5 is expected to bow later this year.

Across the U.S. market, in sectors in which Mazda does not currently compete, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and EVs account for roughly 3 percent of the industry’s overall volume in 2017.

[Images: Mazda]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.