Mazda Motor Corporation has announced recently the start of a joint research project with Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), which is aimed at making internal combustion engines more efficient and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The research topic focuses on developing a low-carbon fuel alongside research into conventional engines that can use it.
Mazda highlights realistically that 84% of vehicles globally will still make use of combustion engines by 2035. Through the research project, the three companies investigating an effective carbon dioxide reduction and the technologies behind it, from a well-to-wheel perspective, are also contemplating every step in the fuel life cycle, from oil well to wheels on the road. Within the project, Saudi Aramco will develop a fuel based on a refinery process that results in lower carbon dioxide emissions, while Mazda and AIST will research and develop a high-efficiency engine capable of running on the fuel. The initiative supports Mazda’s multi-solution approach to reduce carbon dioxide emissions overall. The company believes it is no longer sufficient to focus solely on the tank-to-wheel phase and develop instead fuel-efficient engines and cars that emit low levels of carbon dioxide in road traffic.
The joint research project is in line with the company’s ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030’ vision for technological development, announced in August 2017. The vision adopts a long-term perspective and sets out how Mazda will use driving pleasure and the fundamental appeal of the motorcar to help solve issues facing people, the earth and society.
Mazda’s participation in this research project sees the carmaker build on a long history of technological development that has been aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The company aspires to help conserve the earth’s resources, creating a sustainable future, in which people and cars coexist with our planet. Mazda strives to protect the environment, while offering cars that offer unrestricted mobility to people everywhere, combining outstanding environmental and safety performance, with true driving pleasure, to reach a wider range of global consumers.
