First seen in 1989, the Mazda MX-5 (known as Miata in some markets) is the brand's affordable Roadster masterpiece, with its lightweight body, FR configuration, and excellent handling performance. With the era of electrification approaching, the recent original factory is more frequent action, not only will be through the new development of the after-drive platform, followed by the launch of oil/pure electric SUVs to enhance the competitiveness of the brand market. However, there is little mention of the future development layout of the MX-5, which makes people look at the flowers in the fog, but fortunately, the recent high-level first confirmed that the MX-5 will maintain the internal combustion power unit as much as possible, and providing a high degree of driving pleasure is the development priority.
Photo Credit: Autocar is rumored to be a Mazda symbol, so the future development path will also be different from the brand's other commercially available products. Instead of replacing the front-drive chassis such as the Mazda 3 or MX-30 electric vehicles or the new rear-drive platform of the CX-60, it will continue to be improved with the current ND generation rear-drive platform. Joachim Kunz, head of Mazda's European product development and engineering department, said bluntly in a recent interview with foreign media that at this stage, the original factory intends to continue to retain the MX-5 car series, combining design elements such as small size, design concept (lightweight, manual transmission) and even internal combustion engine, and continues to bring consumers a fun control experience.
The Mazda executive mentioned that the future MX-5 will still not be able to avoid the road to electrification, but the original will do its best to retain this small sports car that is purely fun. Joachim Kunz went on to say that the MX-5 usually has a longer market life cycle than the general mainstream products, and it is not a problem for a generation to sell for 10 years, and from this discourse, the next generation of major overhaul NE MX-5 may not be available until 2024 at the earliest (the current ND generation is listed in 2015). This is a big relief for fans who love the MX-5 series, at least not to worry about the MX-5's transformation into an RV model one day (looking to Ford Mustang Mach-E and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross).
Since the top management has admitted that the MX-5 will continue to be equipped with internal combustion engines in the future, it is reasonable to speculate that the four-cylinder power on the next generation MX-5 is likely to match the current Mazda 3, and the e-Skyactiv X engine technology will be introduced, that is, through the light oil power system and spark control compression ignition (SPCCI) technology, to improve engine emissions and fuel consumption performance, in order to comply with the increasingly stringent emission regulations of various markets.
Not only in December last year, the outside world also saw the original factory in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), submitted a patent design drawing of the new oil-electric hybrid system of the three-motor, and at that time, all walks of life speculated that it was the new oil-electric power brought by Mazda for the new MX-5. The Hybrid unit consists of components such as a 23hp (17 kW) electric motor on either side of the front axle, a 34hp (25 kW) electric motor behind the transmission, and a 3.5 kWh lithium battery pack. Among them, the internal combustion engine and 25kW motor power are transmitted through the rear axle, with the front axle dual motor to bring AWD configuration, if the current ND generation 2.0-liter four-cylinder Skyactiv-G internal combustion engine is pregnant with 181hp output, pinch a new car the comprehensive output will come to at least 252hp level, does it mean that the original factory will provide "oil and electricity four-wheel drive" option in the future? Wait for more news in the future!