European Drivers Are Right Behind Mazda's Pro-Combustion Stance
You’ve got to love Mazda. The relative minnow among Japanese giants is the only car manufacturer to have pledged itself to internal combustion, not just for the next generation with its SPCCI engines, but well into the future.
The company has now released research that backs its stance that combustion is something Europeans still want. The Mazda Driver Project research, carried out across ‘key European markets’ last year, found that an average of 58 per cent of people believe that there is plenty more innovation and development to come from petrol and diesel engines, despite the knee-jerk bans in the wake of dieselgate.
Doom mongers will say what they want, but in the UK 55 per cent of ordinary Joes and Janes questioned by Ipsos Mori on behalf of Mazda said they saw a ‘positive future’ for combustion. That figure rises to almost 60 per cent on mainland Europe.
Back in Britain, some 36 per cent of people said they’d even prefer a petrol or diesel car if overall ownership costs were the same as for EVs. Only 29 per cent said they welcomed self-driving cars, and interestingly there was absolutely no evidence of greater support for autonomous cars among you guys, the younger drivers (and will-be drivers) in the survey.
In a press release, Mazda said:
“The headline results demonstrate that consumers don’t necessarily share the view of many organisations that the internal combustion engine has no role to play in the future of cars.
“Mazda believes driving is a skill that people want to keep. It is an activity that can be fun as well as functional and many would like to see this skill retained for future generations.
“These sentiments are certainly evident in the research results which showed a significant emotional connection between car and driver.
“For example, an average of 69 per cent of drivers “hope that future generations will continue to have the option to drive cars” – the figure is as high as 74 per cent in Poland and 70 per cent or higher in the UK, Germany, France and Sweden.
Comments
Mazda, as always, the voice of reason.
Miata is not always the answer, but if anything Mazda has the answer
Governments across the world: “ICEs are bad, EVs are the future blah blah blah”
Mazda:
The problem with all electric engines is that they lack soul. The torque is amazing and I all comuter cars have to become electric at some point but they would never make me smile like a huge throbbing V8 or a high revving rotary,V6,V10 or a V12
I don’t really have a problem with the noise (lack of it) or the ‘general feeling of soulessness’, what I really hate about them is all the gimmicks and all the bullshit surrounding them. I wouldn’t mind an electric car if it was a normal car with an electric engine. I don’t need or want to unlock the car with my bloody phone, I don’t want a massive screen in the middle of the car, I don’t want it to drive me around. I’d like it simple.
Mazda is right to go with the combustion engine. Even Christian Von Koenigsegg himself said in 2012 that the combustion engine has only been developed by just 40% and there’s so much to be discovered and innovated that all those 150 years of progress would just go to waste if we abandoned it (or ban it) and go fully electric.
Mazda…
If only you photoshopped their logo iso KIA
Some form of combustion will probably always have to exist in order for aircraft to work. Battery density is just too poor and I highly doubt it’ll ever match hydrocarbon, alcohol or hydrogen fuel. Not to mention that leaving a jumbo-jet to charge for many hours between flights isn’t efficient. The real solution is creating that fuel in a carbon-neutral manner, and advances have been made in that field by using bacteria. That way we don’t have to throw away 130 years of development, nor are we reliant on a fully renewable, carbon-neutral electricity source, something that probably won’t happen for 50 years in developed countries and many more in developing countries.
Whatever happens, these are very interesting times ahead. Like the 1890s and 1900s all over again. Whichever technology wins out in the end will be a worthy winner.
Good point you raise about aircraft - I’d say it’s a fairly safe assumption to say that a combustible oil replacement would eventually draw some government interest in order to keep jet aircraft flying
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My respect for Mazda has increased because of this
Car Wars: Rebellion of the Petrol Engine (Mazda)
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