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With the Skyactiv diesel, Mazda has revolutionized not less than the diesel engine. A daring statement? No. The current test car from Mazda has the Skyactiv diesel engine as a power source under the hood. And I'm really impressed with this engine.
Skyactiv-D - The engine of the Diesel Shinkansen
Before the driving report for the Mazda6 station wagon with 175 PS diesel engine will be available in a few days, I will first have to go into the Skyactiv diesel engine.
With a displacement of 2.2 liters, the Skyactiv diesel does not belong to the group of downsizing engines. Thanks to the decent displacement and two turbochargers, 175 hp and 420 Nm are available from the Mazda engine. But this performance in itself is not what defines the Mazda diesel engine.
Flashback: Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine
The idea of Rudolf Diesel was to construct the ideal engine. Even then, the idea of efficiency went through his head. Not yet driven by fuel emissions and fuel consumption, but simply by the maximum power output. His plan was to compress a mixture of fuel and air so high that it ignited itself. On the one hand, this was indeed the most efficient form of conversion of fuels in motion / force; on the other hand, the diesel engine that emerged from it had to be a little heavier and more massive than the gasoline engine that added its fuel mixture lower pressures ignited.
The long way of the diesel
Diesel engines have always been considered "efficient" and powerful. But the principle of high compression also caused problems. For decades, the tasks in automobile construction were clearly distributed. The diesel engine for “endurance runners” that should be frugal and the gasoline engine for sporty cars. But at the latest when the diesel engines were switched to “direct injection”, this clear demarcation also crumbled. Today there is almost nothing left of it. A diesel engine has meanwhile also won the 24-hour race in LeMans. Today you can almost only find diesel engines in sporty limousines for everyday use on the autobahn. A long development from the first “rational heat engine” to the current sporty diesel lies in between and yet, the step towards the Skyaktiv diesel engine from Mazda is at least as big as the switch from pre-chamber diesel engines to direct injection diesel engines.
Diesel Shinkansen
The advantages of the Skyactiv diesel Mazda explains in this video:
No word understood? Okay, currently there is this video on Youtube only in English, I will soon download the German version on Youtube.
To put it in a nutshell: The Skyactiv diesel works with a significantly lower compression. In addition, the engine is significantly lighter than classic diesel. The usually high compression of diesel engines creates problems on the exhaust side. Here, efficiency was exchanged for particle emissions and too much nitrogen oxide. The Skyaktiv diesel avoids this problem with its - for a diesel engine extremely - low compression. The two-stage charging with a small turbocharger that responds early and a larger charger for high speeds ensures a wide speed range. The result is an engine characteristic like that of a large-displacement gasoline engine.
The everyday
In everyday life, the Skyactiv diesel convinces with excellent elasticity. It hangs completely free from the annoyance of a turbo lag on the gas, turns up to 5.200 revolutions and thereby conveys a joy of turning that was previously unknown to me in diesel engines. The Skyactiv drives like a powerful petrol engine, it pushes properly - but does not limit its performance to a small speed range. Ease of turning and smoothness are clearly exemplary in this segment.
The minimum consumption in the Mazda 6 is slightly above the figures for the NEDC standard consumption, but it is surprising how economical the engine remains on fast sections of the motorway. The thirst at full power output is pleasantly within limits. The test values from everyday life are then published in the driving report for the Skyactiv-D Mazda6.
Criticism? Yes. There is only one point. During a cold start, the engine often surprises the driver with speeds of around 2.000 revolutions. I suspect a very extreme variant of “let it warm up”. This seems a little “strange” at the first starts in winter and also makes the heads of passers-by turn to you, but after a few seconds the spook is over.
