Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe it's a "luxury/enthusiast" strategy. I believe the auto market will play out something like the watch market did with the introduction of the quartz watch. Most people just want to tell the time, so they buy a quartZ. Similarly most people just want to get from A to B, so will buy an electric (automated) car. Some people enjoy the mechanics of the thing. So they buy a nice mechanical watch. These watches we…
Perhaps, but I wonder if we won't see more countries go the way of Norway/France/Britain and ban gasoline cars altogether once electric vehicles become more competitive and mainstream....
SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
151–160 of 241 posts
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#152>Compression ignition and a supercharger fitted to improve fuel economy together deliver unprecedented engine response and increase torque 10-30 percent over the current SKYACTIV-G gasoline engine.*3 Wow. I already have a 2016 Mazda 3 that gets around 40MPG (even though it's not a hybrid) and it's already pretty peppy. Probably the best car I've owned, and I've owned several nice sports sedans. Getting 40MPG is too c…
OK, so honest question: I have a 2012 Mazda 3 which, presumably, gets 40mpg. But I can't realistically get anything above 29mpg on average. Am I just an aggressive driver? :) [edit] I agree, by the way, that the cars are incredibly fun to drive, for being "fuel efficient."
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK, so honest question: I have a 2012 Mazda 3 which, presumably, gets 40mpg. But I can't realistically get anything above 29mpg on average. Am I just an aggressive driver? :) [edit] I agree, by the way, that the cars are incredibly fun to drive, for being "fuel efficient."
The correlation between efficient driving and aggressive driving is far from perfect. The "pulse and glide" method from the wikipedia page linked in a sibling comment would seem quite aggressive for example and on the other end of the scale, I have often seen "moving roadblocks" running their engine at RPM far too high for efficient cruising (e.g. when people drive a manual who are afraid of shifting).
Every time you touch your brakes you're throwing away the energy it took to get to that speed. Coasting through off ramps at highway speed is good for the environment.
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#154A reuters story on how it works: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-strategy-idUSKBN1AO... So this is 'gasoline' diesel. Or diesel without the NOx. Which, in theory, would give better fuel economy and possibly better torque. And it will ship in cars in the 2019 model year (so possibly as early as late next year). To me, it sounds like a "Don't pass"[1] bet on electric cars. Which they also are working with Toyo…
Someday someone might invent an efficient process for making gasoline from renewable energi sources.
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can get 40MPG (US) highway with a 2015 Mazda3 and a somewhat aggressive driving style. City is usually low 30s. The manual transmission is also one of the nicest I've ever driven. These are great cars.
I only wish you could get the 2.5L in a manual with no moonroof. That would probably get me to buy a new car. I have an 07 Mazdaspeed3 that is getting long-in-the-tooth, and it gets terrible mileage (19 in town, high 20s on the freeway). The best I can say about the shifter is that you get used to it. I don't think I need quite as much pep as my current car (plus all current hatchbacks that are comparable performance…
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I visited a Tesla store once in mountain view, and they have a great little demo where you can check the cost of charging your car in various states. Washington DC, for whatever reason, gets its electricity from a gasoline power plant. In Washington, the Model S gets 28 MPG. This happened a while ago so I could be misremembering, but regardless I don't believe that the environmental value of electric vehicles has bee…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_long_tailpipe#Criticism The biggest nail in the coffin of the long tailpipe fallacy is that you can drive an EV farther on the power needed to refine a gallon of gas than you can drive a ICE car on that same gallon. So, even if you built a gasoline engine that had absolutely no emissions, and oil bubbled up into crude lakes right next to every refinery, EVs would still be more effici…
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I only wish you could get the 2.5L in a manual with no moonroof. That would probably get me to buy a new car. I have an 07 Mazdaspeed3 that is getting long-in-the-tooth, and it gets terrible mileage (19 in town, high 20s on the freeway). The best I can say about the shifter is that you get used to it. I don't think I need quite as much pep as my current car (plus all current hatchbacks that are comparable performance…
For what it's worth, I went from a WRX to a 2L 3i and don't miss the extra horsepower because we felt, frankly, that they're all slow, so why pay a premium for slightly less slow? With that said, it's plenty fast enough for city driving and is the most fun FWD drive car I've driven, bar none. Hell, it's the best car I've owned and only barely not the most fun (after my RX-7). The interior is great, it's cheap to run,…
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#158A reuters story on how it works: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-strategy-idUSKBN1AO... So this is 'gasoline' diesel. Or diesel without the NOx. Which, in theory, would give better fuel economy and possibly better torque. And it will ship in cars in the 2019 model year (so possibly as early as late next year). To me, it sounds like a "Don't pass"[1] bet on electric cars. Which they also are working with Toyo…
> So this is ... diesel without the NOx NOx is not peculiar to diesel engines. Gasoline engines also generate NOx. All internal engines make NOx. As long as you burn fuel + atmospheric air you get NOx. The atmosphere is 78% nitrogen. Some of it gets oxidized.
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Total individual perspective here, but my dad took me on his worksite like 15 years ago to see the big super gorram awesome trucks (seriously those things are HUGE). When I asked about the engines, he said the trucks had massive diesel generators that powered motors, that in turn powered the wheels and hydraulics. So in a way, lots of construction equipment has kind of already been "hybrid."
An electric power transmission is hardly hybrid. You just have two extra conversions in your transmission, mechanical to electric and electric back to mechanical.
Re: SKYACTIV-X: first commercial gasoline engine to use compression ignition
#160A reuters story on how it works: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-strategy-idUSKBN1AO... So this is 'gasoline' diesel. Or diesel without the NOx. Which, in theory, would give better fuel economy and possibly better torque. And it will ship in cars in the 2019 model year (so possibly as early as late next year). To me, it sounds like a "Don't pass"[1] bet on electric cars. Which they also are working with Toyo…
They also have an interesting somewhat-hybrid called i-eloop that uses regenerative braking and a capacitor to power auxiliary systems: http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/technology/env/i-eloop/