Speaking to the media during the Los Angeles motorshow, Mazda’s head of research & development Kiyoshi Fujiwara said that the Hiroshima carmaker will bring an electric vehicle (EV) to market by 2019 at the latest.
“Probably by 2020 globally, 5-10% [of car sales] will be pure EV, while the other 90-95% will still use ICE (internal combustion engine). Therefore, ICE is [still] the most important technology all over the world,” Fujiwara said.
At this stage, it is speculated that Mazda will work together with Toyota for a low-volume electric vehicle, while possibly exploring the idea of a rotary-engined range-extender model. “Of course we need EVs,” Fujiwara continued. “In Norway, the complete energy source is water. This means that EV is much better for CO2 in Norway. But not in United States or China. Therefore, we are focusing on ICE, but some regions we need EV. Therefore in 2019 or in that time frame, we will introduce EV where it is needed in the world.”
It seems pretty clear at present that Mazda’s upcoming EV will be built on an existing model, rather than a bespoke platform and architecture. With the partnership with Toyota possible, we could see a model-sharing arrangement of some kind, much like the one penned between Toyota and Subaru (resulting in the GT86 & BRZ).
“We are developing the Mazda system by ourselves, but in terms of commercialisation, whether some of the portions should be shared or not… that is the discussion point. Volume is not so big, so in terms of the business, what kind of the part or unit should be shared, it’s better for both companies, we haven’t decided yet,” Fujiwara said of the partnership.
Mazda isn’t a complete stranger when it comes to EVs. Back in 2011, Mazda showed a battery-electric Mazda2 hatch to the world, and then gave us the Mazda2 hatch range-extender a year later. At the time, the battery pack in the 2 had a claimed range of 200km on a single charge, with the range-extender rotary generator (tucked in the boot) could theoretically double that range to 400km. Those cars were engineering studies though, and were never made available to the public.
It’s also highly unlikely that these cars will ever see significant success in Australia, with EV infrastructure not as good as it could be, and the long distances some of us cover would make a pure EV unfeasible. A range extender could go some way in making the whole thing more feasible, though it still remains largely unlikely.
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