HOME / AUTO BUSINESS /
How Mazda Transformed Itself From Also-Ran to World-Leader
James Derek Sapienza
March 10, 2015

Seemingly out of nowhere, Mazda has emerged to become one of the most exciting automakers in the world. While Honda struggles, Nissan focuses on building volume-sellers, and Toyota battles with Volkswagen AG and General Motors to remain the world’s largest automaker, Mazda has developed one of the most competitive and well-rounded lineups in the world, bringing some long-overdue attention to the small brand. The 2014 fiscal year was the most profitable in the company’s 94 year history, with growth in all global markets, and the company is already on track to have an even better 2015.

But despite its new role as a world-beating contender, it’s still one of the smallest automakers in the U.S., accounting for only 1.8% of new cars sold in 2014. While selling 305,804 cars in the U.S. was considered a great year for the company, Toyota sold 2,004,373 cars in comparison. Still, Mazda has always been an outsider compared to the other major automakers, and its longtime niche status has given the company freedom to develop a unique design language all its own. After maintaining a cult following for decades, its impressive new lineup is bringing a growing number of buyers into showrooms, proving that its years as one of the most unique automakers in the world is finally starting to pay off.


Few automakers have a history as unique and tumultuous as Mazda’s. The company was founded in 1920 as a machine shop in Hiroshima, a city not known for heavy industry. In 1931, the company introduced its first vehicle, a three-wheeled motorcycle called the Mazda Go, and during World War II, the company built rifles for the Japanese Army. After the war, Mazda resumed building its three-wheelers, eventually graduating to building light trucks.

In 1960, it released its first car, the R360 (beating Honda’s first car to market by three years), which became an instant success in Japan’s burgeoning “kei car” segment. Within a few years, Mazda’s engineers began to look to the future, and invested in an avant-garde new engine that had the potential to revolutionize the automotive industry, and would come to define the company: the Wankel rotary engine.


Unlike a conventional internal combustion engine, the rotary utilizes a lightweight, compact design that replaces pistons with a triangular rotor, making the rotary a simpler engine with fewer moving parts, smoother performance, and higher revolutions per minute. Developed by German company NSU (who would soon be absorbed by Volkswagen), Mazda licensed the technology and set about building a radical car that lived up to its new powerplant. The Cosmo Sport was introduced in 1967, and gave Mazda nearly instant credibility in the nascent Japanese performance car market. By the end of the decade, the company felt confident enough to begin selling cars in the U.S., entering a market where even the largest Japanese automakers were struggling to win over buyers.

Mazda sought to differentiate itself with its rotary technology, which was so popular by the early 1970s that even a rotary-powered Corvette was discussed. The company enjoyed early success in America with the small Mazda Rotary Pickup, designed exclusively for the American market, and its RX-2 and RX-3 sporty cars. Unfortunately, the success was short-lived as the company plunged into turmoil during the fuel crisis of the mid-1970s. While the rotary engine had definite benefits over standard engines, they were less fuel efficient, produced higher emissions, and had shorter lifespans. By the mid 1970s, Mazda had largely shifted focus back to conventional engines, tuning the rotary for increased performance and making it exclusive to one model: the now-legendary RX-7.


In the U.S., the RX-7 brought much-needed attention to the company as it struggled to reinvent itself as a builder of small, reliable economy cars. The RX-7’s modern styling and strong performance caught on with American performance buyers and the GLC hatchback (for Great Little Car) became a strong seller for the brand. In 1979, Ford bought a 7% stake in the company, beginning a long working partnership that made the company viable in the U.S. market and helped it survive another tumultuous 30 years.


In the 1980s, Mazda competed in a field flooded with Japanese imports. While Toyota, Honda, and Nissan were enjoying booming sales in the U.S. market, the brand struggled to itself from second-tier competitors like Subaru, Isuzu, Daihatsu and Mitsubishi. A booming Japanese economy left Mazda flush with cash, and with Ford’s backing, the company built a factory in Michigan. It jointly developed several models, including the Ford Probe/Mazda MX-6, and Ford Explorer SUV (which was also rebadged as the Mazda Navajo). In 1989, the company unveiled the MX-5 Miata roadster, which single-handedly revived the small, affordable sports car market, and gave the company some much-needed attention.

Despite the runaway success of the Miata, Mazda had little else that could bring buyers into its showrooms in large numbers. The Miata and the final-generation RX-7 were highly-regarded performance cars, but the rest of the company’s lineup was unfocused as it struggled to build a brand identity for much of the 1990s. During the Japanese financial crisis of 1997, Ford seized controlling interest in the company and began plans to build future models on Ford architecture. Ford revitalized Mazda’s distributorships and dealer networks, and quickly made the brand profitable. With a strong infrastructure in place, Mazda was able to focus on building a competitive lineup, piece by piece.


In 2000, the company began its long-running “zoom-zoom” ad campaign, showing the emotional connections drivers develop with their Mazdas, and it soon had models that could live up to its claim. Introduced in 2003, Mazda brought back a rotary-powered sports car in the RX-8. By the middle of the decade, the Mazda3 and Mazda6 were considered some of the strongest cars in their classes, and the MazdaSpeed performance versions proved that Mazda genuinely could bring fun-to-drive performance to nearly every model in its lineup.

In the midst of the global financial crisis, Ford divested itself of Mazda, and by 2010 had reduced its share to less than 3%. Even with a weak economy and banks reluctant to lend money, Mazda was stable enough to buy a portion of Ford’s shares, and raise additional capital to build a new factory in Mexico. The company hit full stride in 2013 with lineup-wide reinvention and introductions of the the next-generation Mazda2, Mazda3, Mazda6, and CX-5 Crossover. Seemingly overnight, the company had transformed itself from an often-forgotten builder of off-beat cars to a world-class automaker with a stronger full lineup than almost any other automaker in the world.

For the past several years, Mazda’s design team has been designing cars using “Kodo,” meaning “soul of motion,” and is meant to evoke an emotional response in the driver – a physical manifestation of “zoom zoom.” So far, it’s been a runaway success. These new Mazdas are more stylish, better built, and better engineered than almost all of their competitors. Using advanced powertrain engineering that Mazda calls “Skyactiv Technologies,” the engine, transmission, and chassis is designed for maximum power, handling and fuel economy, delivering an exciting driving experience that extends across the entire model line.


Since their transformation, Mazdas have evoked a response from the automotive press usually reserved for Italian cars, with journalists waxing poetic on their fantastic design, well-appointed interiors, and excellent handling. Much of the lineup is due for a refresh in 2016, along with the introduction of an all-new Miata and CX-3 small crossover. For 2018, the company plans on introducing several more next-generation models, and is considering reviving the rotary-powered RX-7.

In the span of a few short years, Mazda has transformed itself from an also-ran to an industry leader. Despite its success, there are growing concerns that the good times could end abruptly for the company. An article in Car and Driver outlines just how much Ford had sheltered the brand from a host of economic hardships, and how future models must have a greater profit margin if the small company hopes to weather tougher economic climates. Because of this, rumors have been swirling of an impending merger with a larger company, and the most likely candidate is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Speaking at the Geneva motor show, FCA’s Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said that he has a merger candidate in mind, and added that he imagines collaborating with Mazda on future projects, as the company is using the Miata’s architecture to develop a new Fiat sports car. A merger probably won’t mean the end of Mazda’s success, and if it’s given enough space to keep building fresh, exiting cars using its own unique language, it will continue to grow. Nearly 50 years after selling their first car in America, Mazda has finally arrived. And don’t expect them to go anywhere anytime soon.



Read more: http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/how-...l#ixzz3bJUaPCIS

How Mazda's Skyactiv Fuel-Efficiency Technology Works
Gary Witzenburg Oct 31, 2012
Story Behind 10 Best Engines
The combustion research that led to Mazda’s 13:1 compression ratio on 87-octane gas goes back about 10 years, long before there was a Skyactiv program.

The Ward’s 10 Best Engines competition has recognized outstanding powertrain achievement for 18 years. In this installment of the 2012 Behind the 10 Best Engines series, WardsAuto looks at the development of Mazda’s inventive approach to boosting fuel economy.

Mazda is taking a very different approach to meeting government and consumer demands for increasing fuel efficiency, and it appears to be paying off, at least in the short run.

Instead of betting billions on hybrid- and battery-electric vehicles, Mazda’s strategy, called "Skyactiv,"  is a comprehensive effort to substantially increase the efficiency of every element of every vehicle, beginning with engines and transmissions and continuing through bodies and chassis.

“Our goal is to improve fuel economy globally by 30%,” says Mazda Product Planning Executive Officer Kiyoshi Fujiwara at Skyactiv's U.S. press introduction. “And our answer is still the ICE (internal combustion engine). Our top priority is to radically improve this technology.”

Skyactiv begins with internal-combustion engines, both gasoline and diesel, made more efficient using a building-block process that progressively launches efficiency enhancements.

These technologies eventually will give way to vehicle electrification strategies to meet aggressive U.S. corporate average fuel economy requirements on the horizon.

The key is putting off the latter until those technologies are further developed and more affordable.

Mazda says the ’12 Mazda3’s new 155-hp 2.0L Skyactiv gasoline 4-cyl. consumes 15% less fuel than its same-displacement predecessor, making mileage roughly equivalent to a conventional 2.2L diesel. Other improvements include 15% more torque, especially in the low-to-mid-rpm range, a 10% weight reduction and 30% less internal friction.

“The ICE still has substantial losses,” Mazda Powertrain Development Manager Ritaro Isobe says. “We needed to reduce them further. Our vision was ideal combustion, and we have applied technology innovation to achieve that."

Isobe calls Mazda’s (global) 14:1 compression ratio for the engine “groundbreaking” even though it is a lower 13:1 in the U.S. version of the ’13 CX-5 compact cross/utility vehicle, and an even more modest 12:1 in WardsAuto’s ’12 Mazda3 test car.

The compression ratio is lower in the CX-5 so it can accommodate 87-octane regular gas in the U.S. and even lower in the Mazda3 because the car lacks the engine bay room needed to accommodate the full Skyactiv engine's unique 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, a strategic element of the “breakthrough” marriage of technologies that Mazda engineers are using to prevent pre-ignition knock at such high compression.

Other key technologies include direct multi-hole gas injection, dual variable-valve timing, new-design pistons, shorter combustion duration and delayed ignition during startup.

Compared with the competing Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra I-4s, "The Mazda3 stands taller...with a free-revving vigor directly attributable to its best-in-class torque peak of 148 lb.-ft. (201 Nm) at a reasonable 4,100 rpm. That extra oomph is noticeable when pulling away from stop lights and passing on the highway,” WardsAuto editor Tom Murphy says.

Despite repeated thrashing by the judges over the course of a 750-mile (1,207-km) evaluation, the Mazda3's DI 2.0L “gleefully responds with fuel-economy numbers that top 34 mpg (6.9L/100 km)," Murphy adds.

Equipped with the new Skyactiv 6-speed automatic transmission, the Mazda3 sedan is rated by the Environmental Protection Agency at 28/40 mpg (8.4-5.9 L/100 km) city/highway.

"The combustion research that led to our ability to get to a 13:1 compression ratio on 87-octane gas goes back about 10 years, long before there was a Skyactiv program, with real fundamental research into the combustion process and how we could improve it," says Mazda North America Vehicle Evaluation Manager Dave Coleman. "Some manufacturing innovations also played a big part in getting it off the ground."

The concept is obvious, Coleman says. Higher expansion ratios capture more combustion energy, a fundamental engine characteristic. “The breakthrough was ignoring what we have learned over the last hundred years as to what compression ratios are possible and studying more deeply exactly what we can do using the latest technology available to us," Coleman says.

The enablers that led to such high compression ratios were a “complicated web of things," Coleman says. "The basics of how to avoid knock haven't changed. The main thing that causes knock is high temperature, and higher compression ratios increase temperatures, so you want the intake charge as cool as possible. If we can lower the temperature of the fresh-air charge enough, we can raise compression a calculable amount."

Racing engines for many years have used as much valve overlap as possible to push the exhaust out of each cylinder before pulling in a fresh, cool air charge. Since residual exhaust gas is very hot, even a small amount will dramatically increase the temperature in the cylinder. So Mazda makes clever use of its VVT to enable more aggressive cam timing profiles to fully purge hot exhaust gases.

Another key is the long 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, which allows Mazda to get all the exhaust out of each cylinder without a pressure pulse from another interfering and pushing it back in. But the long exhaust manifold also moves the catalyst farther away, making it hard to light off quickly to reduce emissions during startup.

"The direct injection is helping with that tremendously," Coleman says. "It inherently improves our ability to get a high compression ratio because the fuel atomization is so fine that we get much better cooling effect from spraying the fuel directly into the combustion chamber."

Mazda uses direct injection to very carefully tailor combustion conditions at cold start to get essentially a stratified charge that is easy to ignite. The rich mixture adjacent to the spark plug gets started, and the ball of burning fuel ignites the lean mixture, Coleman says.

That stratified charge is possible thanks to very fast DI that can inject a little fuel during the intake stroke, then a bit more during the compression stroke, to enable very stable combustion, which in turn allows very delayed ignition timing during cold start.

“The later we ignite the fuel, the later it continues burning and the hotter it is going out the exhaust. So we're running very retarded ignition timing during the first 15 seconds or so to create more heat to light off that catalyst and get it up to temperature," Coleman says.

One other contributor to the engine's efficiency is that it cruises open-throttle at light loads. "It actually runs with the throttle open almost like an Atkinson cycle," Coleman says. “Other companies are doing this as well, but we're more picky about the details. We call it the Mazda Miller Cycle, because the Miller Cycle is our method of obtaining an Atkinson Cycle."

And clearly, Mazda looks at its current high compression ratios as just a start. During development, engineers were experimenting with 15:1 and even 18:1 compression ratios.

Eventually there will be some type of convergence between diesel and gasoline engines, with the ultimate goal to bring homogeneous charge compression ignition into the equation. “That is everyone's Holy Grail,” Coleman says.

"I think some of what we've learned in this process will get us to that stage, sooner rather than later. You'll notice that the compression ratios of our diesel and gas engines in premium-fuel countries are the same at 14:1 now. That is somewhat coincidental, but both of these engines have been driving toward that point, getting more similar."

Of course, every auto maker is working on both powertrain and full-vehicle efficiency from roof to tire patch.

But Mazda is betting its major competitors’ enormous investments in EVs, HEVs, fuel cells and other advanced technologies may limit their near-term investments in ICEs, transmissions, bodies and chassis enough that key competitive advantages can be gained and CAFE requirements met with much-improved conventional powertrains. At least for the next few years, until Mazda also will have to electrify to meet CAFE standards.

What's to prevent others from copying what Mazda has done? The auto maker says it has about 150 patents on every detail of what makes its Skyactiv engine work.

I think that their biggest shift started when they began to employ elements of Kodo. These current-generation Mazdas really give contis a run for their money when it comes to interior styling.

All the tech is well and good, but Mazda really needs to pay attention to NVH levels.
I took a test drive of the Mazda 3 over the weekend and if not for the really bad road noise that's coming into the cabin, I may have already placed a booking.