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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.
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(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday December 13 2024, @11:42AM
I've been driving fairly small hybrids for over a decade for similar reasons:
1. It gets extremely good distance per amount of fuel: About 1.6 * gas powered sedan, and about 2.5 * a pickup. That's extremely handy when gas prices skyrocket like they do periodically because of reasons that are totally not price gouging or weird stuff on the commodities markets.
2. Since I'm not infrequently on the road for distances beyond the range of a single tank, refueling time matters. That's why a full EV isn't yet really suitable.
3. Maintenance has not been substantially worse than a gas-only vehicle.
It's one of those cases where "spend money up front to save money in the long run" is very much in play.
And I'll add that if you're in one of the more enlightened locations, it's fairly easy to add solar power generation capacity to your home, and that brings your running cost to fuel an EV or plugin-hybrid down even more, even to $0.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin