Forget Diesel - Mazda Says New Gas Engine Has Diesel Fuel Efficiency and Torque

Mazda’s new Skyactiv-X engine will have 30 percent more torque and matches the efficiency of its diesel engine using regular unleaded fuel.

Mazda has announced that its Skyactiv-X engine will match the efficiency and torque of its diesel engine while using less expensive, cleaner regular unleaded fuel. In Mazda’s own words, the new Skyactiv-X engine will achieve the goal of lower emissions and higher efficiency, but has “Been designed to work in the real world, not just on a government test cycle.”

In addition to the 30 percent torque gains over its conventional gasoline engines, Mazda says the new Skyactiv-X engine “Pulls like a turbo-diesel, but revs like a normally-aspirated gasoline engine. Mazda made comparisons to its current 2.0-liter gas engine in the Mazda3 compact car and said that the new engine would enable it to accelerate as fast as an MX-5 Miata. That means under six seconds in the 0-60 MPH sprint.

Mazda’s new technology combines the combustion process of the Otto Cycle and Diesel Cycle engine types. Although Mazda says it will use a spark in the cylinder, it does so differently and that the majority of the air-fuel mixture auto-ignites, like in a diesel. The increased compression allows for greater torque production. Torque is felt more by drivers than is power. It is the pull one feels in a front drive car or the push in a rear-drive car. Automakers have been moving towards higher-torque engines using turbochargers for the past couple of decades.

The most interesting part of the whole Mazda Skyactiv-X engine project is that it is almost ready to go. A Mazda representative told Torque News Skyactiv-X engines would begin to appear in production models in 2019.