Rumors of the death of the internal combustion engine are exaggerated. At least if you ask both Mazda and Toyota, who now want to develop the technology even more.
It is some Chinese who right now have the world's most efficient diesel engine. That is, when you do this kind of thing in terms of efficiency. Read more about it here.
But Japanese Toyota and Mazda have no intention of parking the technology either. On the contrary, the two brands will separately open new development departments with a focus on the internal combustion engine.
The car brand's directors told this in separate speeches in connection with the Tokyo Auto Salon.
The fact that the car brands are now throwing more money at the development of the internal combustion engine does not mean, however, that the engine of the future will run on diesel or petrol. It might run on hydrogen. Some Chinese have even suggested ammonia. Read more about it here .
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However, the Japanese are convinced that the internal combustion engine will also play a decisive role on the roads in the future.
– The technical challenges we have to solve are not easy, but we hope to be able to take steps towards a new chapter, said Mazda's director Masahiro Moro.
Aiko Toyoda, in her capacity as Toyota's chairman of the board, also mentioned the same in her speech at the motor show. But for him it is also about preserving jobs. A good 5.5 million people are employed in the Japanese car industry.
– These people support Japan and have the skills required to make tomorrow's Japan strong.
And then Aiko Toyoda complemented himself by emphasizing that he 'loves the sound and smell of an internal combustion engine. He also chose to fire back at the internal combustion engine's critics.
On the whole, Toyoda believes that the internal combustion engine is necessary to have in the future. And that the only enemy in that context is CO2 emissions, but that there are also ways to deal with that kind of thing.
Toyota, for example, is one of the brands that is currently testing cars with internal combustion engines that burn hydrogen. At Ferrari, they have considered the idea of an inverted V6 that does the same. Read more here .
