During the 2018 Guangzhou Auto Show, Mr. Nobuhiko Watanabe, Chairman of Mazda (China), said that Mazda will readjust its brand positioning and gradually transform into a second-tier luxury brand. After a long wait of four years, Mazda finally released their first model to enter the luxury market, the Mazda CX-60, not long ago.
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"Against the tide" Mazda CX-60
In terms of design, the Mazda CX-60 did not overturn everything and still adopted the soul design language. However, the slender front of the car and the simple and capable body lines make it have a bit of a BMW X5 flavor, and the image of Mazda's "Toei BMW" has deepened again.
The overall design and layout of the new car interior are relatively conventional, but Nappa's leather, maple interior trim, as well as the use of "Japanese textile binding method" at the center console trim and door trim panels, through the improvement of craftsmanship and materials, to highlight the luxury positioning of mazda CX-60.
What underpins luxury brands is not simply a gorgeous appearance, and the platform and power system are also key. Mazda CX-60 is based on a new longitudinal platform, and the drive form is a rear drive, which is a collection of two elements of traditional luxury cars. In addition, in the engine part, the Mazda CX-60 is equipped with two in-line six-cylinder engines in addition to the traditional four-cylinder engine and PHEV power. One of them is the 3.0-liter e-SKYACTIV-X six-cylinder gasoline engine, and the other is the 3.3-liter e-SKYACTIV-D six-cylinder diesel engine. At the same time, both six-cylinder engines are equipped with a 48V light mixing system to improve fuel economy.
The Mazda CX-60 has a rather unscentive exterior and interior, but the vertical platform and six-cylinder engine definitely make fans exclaim "NB". Electrification struck, more than half of the car companies announced that they will no longer develop new fuel vehicle platforms and fuel engines, but Mazda is not, but also got a six-cylinder engine that almost no car companies dare to touch at present, contrary to the trend.
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Pick up the rotor engine that everyone has abandoned
In fact, Mazda's "counter-trend" is really carved in the bones for a long time, such as the rotor engine. In 1954, the German Dr. Felix Wanger successfully developed the first rotor engine. The strength of the rotor engine is that the ordinary reciprocating engine does a job, the crankshaft needs to rotate twice, and thanks to the special structure of the rotor engine, the rotor can complete the process of three four-strokes in one turn, and the realization of small displacement also has large power.
Although the rotor engine looks very good, there is also a fatal problem, that is, the reliability and durability are insufficient, and it is difficult to reach the level of mass production. So those car companies that had thrown "olive branches" to the rotor engine later said that they had no intention of buying, but except for Mazda. Mazda still regards the rotor engine as a treasure and has spent a lot of money to buy the patent license. Mazda then recruited 47 outstanding engineers to form the Rotor Research Department, which was later known as the "Rotor Forty-Seven". In 1964, the rotor engine was finally mass-produced, and Mazda became famous.
In 1967, the world's first sports car equipped with a mass-produced rotor engine, the Cosmo Sport, which has a displacement of less than 1.0 liters and can squeeze out 100 horsepower, which is the horsepower that many reciprocating engines of the same displacement cannot achieve today. In 1978, the RX-7 with rotor engine was launched, and its later version was equipped with a 654cc twin-rotor turbo engine that could burst out 280 horsepower, and the model became one of japan's famous four supercars because of its outstanding performance. In 1991, the 787B with four rotors and a maximum horsepower of 900 horses won Mazda the 24-hour Le Mans race.
Although the rotor engine has achieved mass production in Mazda's hands and proved its strength, the problems of durability, high fuel consumption and frequent maintenance have not been well solved. With the aggravation of the energy crisis and people's increasing awareness of environmental protection, models equipped with rotor engines are no longer popular in the market, and Mazda has chosen to temporarily "seal" them.
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Fight to the end with the internal combustion engine
After that, the automotive powertrain began to shift from multi-cylinder large displacement to small displacement turbine or hybrid. But Mazda once again showed a "counter-trend" attitude, and it was bound to die with the internal combustion engine. In 2011, Mazda launched the first self-priming engine equipped with Chuangchi Blue Sky technology, which pushes the power and fuel consumption level of naturally aspirated engines to new heights with advanced technologies such as 4-2-1 long-path exhaust system, porous injection devices, concave pistons, and compression ratios of up to 14:1. However, the self-priming start is affected by innate conditions, how to improve the power is not as good as the turbine engine, and the fuel consumption is not comparable to the hybrid system, coupled with the Chuangchi Blue Sky engine is too precise, resulting in a decline in reliability, in the end, the Mazda model equipped with Chuangchi Blue Sky technology has not become the mainstream of the market.
But Mazda did not have the intention of giving up, and later developed the Chuangchi Blue Sky X engine, the biggest highlight of which is equipped with SPCCCI spark control compression ignition technology. The combustion efficiency of Chuangchi Blue Sky X engine reaches an astonishing 48%, and the compression ratio of the engine reaches a maximum of 18:1, which can be said to break the limit of the civil internal combustion engine. However, due to weak power, high requirements for oil products, and high prices, Chuangchi Blue Sky X engine still failed to become the mainstream of the market.
Then this time, in the context of the irreversible trend of global automobile electrification, Mazda has developed a new fuel vehicle platform, as well as today's view, the number of cylinders and displacement are very large 3.0L straight six gasoline engine and 3.3L straight six diesel engine. And this is not the end, Mazda has only "sealed" the rotor engine before, not abandoned, it has been committed to eliminating the shortage of rotor engines through new technologies, and is always preparing for the second large-scale mass production.
This year, there are really not many car manufacturers who do not follow the trend, so the "anti-trend" Mazda is so precious. Mazda is a very thoughtful and persistent car brand, and a lot of his spirit is worth learning.