Mazda is beginning to incorporate SKYACTIV Technology in their cars. The 2012 Mazda3 had added SKYACTIV features to the model, but now Mazda is building their vehicles from the ground up using this technology in every aspect of the car.  In order to create a new system in the vehicles they had to reinvent the engineering components.

By now you are probably thinking – what does ANY of this mean? Here is the information simplified.

Mazda’s have a better fuel economy, 15% better to be exact. This will give you more miles per gallon, which saves you money on gas and emits a little less pollution into the air.

When car companies give a car better fuel economy that usually means they lose something from the performance department – speed, handling, acceleration, etc. Mazda had to reinvent the way their cars work in order to keep their high standards of performance while gaining MPG.

A lot of science and research was involved. Now the different components of the car work together better and more in sync. They also made their vehicles lighter, which allows the engine to do less work. The CX-5 is 220 pounds lighter than the cx-7 which it replaced in the US market.

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Now for some technical things (I tried to simplify this section to the best of my ability).

Mazda had to redesign the combustion chamber to ignite the fuel faster to help prevent any ‘knocking’ from occurring. Knocking occurs when the air-fuel mixture ignites too soon from high pressure and temperature in the chamber. You would experience knocking in a car that requires premium gas but instead you use regular gas.

Mazda increased the compression ratio which is what forced them to redesign how the combustion worked. By increasing the compression ratio they were able to increase the thermal efficiency. The thermal efficiency measures how well the internal combustion works.