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Mazda: Americans Want Cheap Gas Cars

posted by janrinok on Thursday December 12 2024, @11:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the got-gas? dept.

fliptop writes:

The company's CEO claims that affordable and reliable vehicles with combustion engines are a priority for US buyers:

Mazda is late to the electrification party. The MX-30 is far from being the roaring success the Japanese automaker had hoped it would be. It was axed from the United States at the end of the 2023 model year due to poor sales. The range-extending version with a rotary engine is only offered in certain markets, and the US is not on the list. In addition, the EZ-6 electric sedan isn't coming here either. However, the situation isn't all that bad.

Why? Because Americans primarily want gas cars. Speaking with Automotive News, Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro said ICE has a long future in America. Even at the end of the decade, traditional gas cars and mild-hybrid models will make up about two-thirds of annual sales. Plug-in hybrids and EVs will represent the remaining third. In other words, most vehicles will still have a gas engine five years from now.

Mazda's head honcho primarily referred to entry-level models, specifically the 3 and CX-30. Moro believes EV growth in the US has slowed down in the last 18 months or so, adding the trend will likely continue in the foreseeable future. That buys the company more time to develop a lithium-ion battery entirely in-house. The goal is to have it ready for 2030 in plug-in hybrids and purely electric cars. Expect a much higher energy density and "very short" charging times. Interestingly, the engineers already have a "very advanced research base for solid-state batteries."

In the meantime, work is underway on a two-rotor gas engine that will serve as a generator.

Related:

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 13 2024, @11:19AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 13 2024, @11:19AM (#1385329)

    Waste cooking oil for Biodiesel is now in such demand that the refiners have contracts with restaurants. Most telling is that the waste cooking oil is now being stolen!
    https://www.cheektowagabee.com/articles/used-cooking-oil-thefts-continue-in-erie-county/ [cheektowagabee.com]

    ... The waste product is collected by area restaurants to sell to biodiesel companies that refine the grease into usable fuel.

    Buffalo Biodiesel owner Sumit Majumdar stated in a conversation that the culprits appear to be stealing or renting vehicles to commit these crimes, making it difficult to track them down later on. Using large vats within the vehicles, often vans or work trucks, the thieves will force entry into a restaurant’s storage tank and siphon out the contents.

    In the most recent case reported by the Lancaster Police Department, at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, Lancaster officers responded to complaints of used cooking oil being illegally removed from a storage tank outside a seafood restaurant on Transit Road. An employee of Buffalo Biodiesel came across the looted tank while making his regularly scheduled collection of used cooking oil from area businesses that the company is contracted to service.

    • According to the police report, the locking system on the oil tank appeared to have been cut, the metal bar used to secure the tank’s opening found in a pile of grease on top of the tank.

    • The estimated financial loss from this theft is $1,225. [story continues with other thefts]

    At least around here, it seems like we're at "peak cooking oil" now, and have reached the max amount of feedstock available from making Buffalo wings and other deep fried food.

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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday December 13 2024, @10:36PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Friday December 13 2024, @10:36PM (#1385383) Homepage Journal

    "My retirement grease!!!"

    --
    "rancid randy has a dialogue with herself[...] Somebody help him!" -- Anonymous Coward.