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Mazda To Crush Hybrids With Conventional Technology

November 7, 2010 by Leo Ferrusi

I just read on the cartech blog at cnet that Mazda has come up with an ambitious plan to provide hybrid like fuel economy through conventional fuel technology.

Christened SkyActive on the lines of earlier Mazda models Sky-G gasoline and Sky-D diesel engines, Mazda CEO unveiled the company’s plans with much gusto stating that the technologies would include better and lighter chassis and vehicle body designs, direct injection diesel and gasoline engines and transmissions.

The move is Mazda’s attempt to keep up with competitors such as Toyota and Nissan who have considerably higher RD budgets. Mazda is trying to cash in on the improvement of tried and tested methods instead of investing in the development of new technologies.

A spokesperson for the company said that the newly rechristened SkyActiv-G gasoline engine may be available in some Mazda models as early as next years. In a bold move, Mazda also revealed that consumers can expect fuel consumption of 70 mpg in the Mazda 2 which puts it at par with the hybrid engine models available from competitors such as Honda.

The company has achieved the fuel efficiency through the use of the direct injection technology. Because fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber in such engines, greater fuel economy and performance can be achieved as opposed to regular engines where the fuel is injected upstream in the intake port.

This transmission adds another 7 percent to the fuel efficiency which is further accentuated by the body structure and the chassis.

Mazda’s plans may also have been motivated by the dwindling stakes of Ford in the company. A long term partner Ford has reduced its stakes in the company to a mere 3% with further disinvestment expected. Mazda of course has no plans to share its newfound approach to fuel efficiency with Ford.

The really exiting part is that Mazda plans to incorporate SkyActiv technologies in all their models by 2015 which means the hybrids will have some tough competition from cheaper conventional technology in the years to come.

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Pictures of My Car Heating System

November 25, 2007 by Simon

I thought some of your may not have seen any engine heating system if you live south and as this one is connected to the Finnish electricity grid you won’t recognice the electricity connectors if you live outsitde this part of Europe.

The first part is the timer that lets me connect the heating when I get home from work and have it turn on two to four hours before I go to work the next day. I use two hours during the mild part of winter and four hours when it’s really cold.

Then theres the cable connecting the mains from the timer to the car. Theres a small handy socket in the front left of the car where I plug in the power, we also have a couple of heating sockets at work so if I’m in time I can have heater on also before leaving for home.

Inside the car the cabling goes to the block heater and to the inside heating fan.

The cable outside the car should be made of oil and cold resistant material as otherwise it will get stiff as a stick and oil on the ground can eat through normal cabling.

I included a pic of the engine even though you can’t see the heater, it’s a block heater and if you could see it it would just be a cable going into the engine block as the heater is inside the engine heating the coolant.

As you can see it’s pretty crowded in the engine compartment so I didn’t find where the heater is located but it does work so I believe it’s where it’s supposed to be.

The other part of the heating system is a heating fan heating the inside of the car making it more comfortable and melting ice of the windows saving me five minutes of idling and manual ice-removal.

The block heater helps with mileage as the engine uses less fuel when warm and the inside heater lets me take off immediatly instead of idling for five minutes while taking the ice off the windows. It also make the driving a lot more comfortable as the engine does not heat up enought to provide much heat during my 15 mintue commute.

Dedicated to improving your mileage,

Simon Byholm
MilesGallon.com

Fuel Economy of Tonneau Covers Questioned

September 18, 2007 by Simon

You may have heard that you can improve the mpg of your truck by covering the truck bed with a tonneau cover.

I just read that SEMA has done some research on the effect of truck bed covers on the aerodynamics and it seems they found out that covering the bed on your truck will reduce drag by 4.2%–7.8%, effectively reducing the amount of fuel you have to use to overcome air resistance.

I read a post about this research over at Thundra Headquarters where the admin thinks the fuel savings are too small to warrant the considerable cost of buying a new tonno. Instinctively I don’t agree as there is other uses for a bed cover than just to save fuel

I was also qurious if the calculations are true, so I did some of my own. The main thing to consider here is that the tonno only improves the aerodynamics to a noticeable degree when you drive at highway speed. And not all of the fuel is used to push air, some is also used to overcome rolling resistance.

I will calculate with a 3% fuel saving on a 20mpg truck, doing a 20mile highway commute every day making it a total of 50miles per day with off work driving. I will also use a 6 day week to account for other than commute driving.

20mpg is 0.05 gallons per mile. 3% of this is 0.0015 gallons saved for every mile you drive. The total miles in a year is 50 miles x 6 days x 50 weeks in a year. This makes for 15000 miles a year with 0.0015 gallons of gas saved for every mile, thus 22.5 gallons saved.

With a gas price of $3 per gallon this would make a total saving of $67.5 per year with the tonno cover comared to driving without one, not bad.

Lets say you own you tonneau for 5 years, you will save $337.5 over this period.

What can I say, you won’t be able to pay for more than the most basic truck bed cover with the gas saved, but then again don’t you wan’t to have a cover?

There’s so many other reasons to get a tonneau cover for your truck than just to save gas. It will keep your stuff dry when driving in the rain, it will keep your stuff clean when driving in the dust. It will keep you light stuff from flying away when you drive on the highway.

It will also prevent you stuff from walking away when you stop in the city and if you get one that you can lock it will also prevent you stuff from walking away at night, when parked in the open.

With all these reasons to get a cover, isn’t it great that the gas savings of the tonno itself will pay for most of it?

Just remember that you get the most savings if you drive highway miles, if you are only driving around town doing street speed you won’t save much.

If when reading this you feel like you got a good reason to go get a new tonneau cover for your pickup truck, I have listed some reasonably priced tonnos from a US dealer here:

How to Save Gas With A Tonneau Truckbed Cover  

And always remember, if you need to check your gas mileage the mpg calculator is over at the main page.