Mazda Demio’s SKYACTIV-G 1.3 engine wins RJC award

by autoindustrie | November 16, 2011 1:01 pm

• Awarded 2012 Technology of the Year
• By RJC – Automotive Researchers’ and Journalists’ Conference of Japan

The RJC (Automotive Researchers’ and Journalists’ Conference of Japan) is a non-profit organization setup in 1991 by automotive academicians, automotive professionals and journalists. At the beginning of each year, RJC will give out awards for 3 categories – Domestic (Japan) Car of the Year, Import Car of the Year and Technology of the Year, based on votes by RJC members. Note that the RJC Car of the Year award is not related in any way with the annual Japan Car Of The Year (COTY) award, which is based purely on opinions of a group of journalists.

For the RJC Technology of the Year award, there were 6 finalists, two of which were from Mazda.

• Mazda – SKYACTIV-G engine
• Mazda – SKYACTIV-Drive automatic transmission
• Nissan – EV technology for the Nissan Leaf
• Toyota – Compact Lithium-ion battery (Prius Plug-in Hybrid)
• Volvo – Full auto brake system (City Safety)

In January 2012 – RJC will announce the winner of RJC Car of the Year.

Mazda’s ultra fuel efficient SKYACTIV engine series is currently only available in Japan. However at this month’s Los Angeles Motor Show, Mazda will be unveiling the CX-5 SUV with SKYACTIV, making it the first overseas model with a SKYACTIV engine.

By incorporating intelligent designs like an ultra high compression ratio of 14:1, unheard of for a naturally aspirated production engine, cooled EGR, unique piston cavities for improved combustion, various friction and weight reducing measures, the Mazda Demio (known as the Mazda 2 in overseas) achieves a segment leading fuel economy.

Mazda Demio 13-SKYACTIV fuel economy
25.0 km/liter under the Japanese JC08 test cycle
30.0 km/liter under the previous 10-15 test cycle.

For comparison, the Mazda Demio’s fuel economy closely match that of Japan’s two most popular (but more expensive) petrol-electric hybrids. The Prius starts at 2.17 million Yen (as of Nov 2011 price increase[1]) while the Insight (October 2011 facelift[2]) starts at 1.93 million Yen. A SKYACTIV-G equipped Mazda Demio starts at 1.4 million Yen.

Honda Insight 1.3 IMA
27.2 km/liter under JC08 test cycle
31.0 km/liter under 10-15 test cycle

Toyota Prius
32.6 km/liter under JC08 test cycle
38.0 km/liter under 10-15 test cycle

Then again, both the Prius and Insight are larger cars. So let’s look at a similar size Daihatsu Boon CX 1.3-liter petrol. The similar engine capacity Daihatsu Boon 1.3 achieves only 21.0 km/L under the 10-15 test cycle. 30% worse than the Demio. This was done on the latest 1NR-FE engine. The Daihatsu Boon’s rebadged cousin in Malaysia, Perodua Myvi, with an older generation K3-VE engine performs even poorer at 17.0 km/liter under the same 10-15 test cycle, 43% worse than the Demio.

You would expect all the fancy construction and design that goes into the SKYACTIV-G engine will make it a lot more expensive. In Japan, the Mazda Demio 13-SKYACTIV grade with CVT retails for 1,400,000 Japanese Yen. The top of the range Daihatsu Boon CX 1.3 Premium grade retails for 1,396,800 Japanse Yen, making the top-line Demio less than 1% more expensive.

Frankly, we find lesser known awards like RJC carry far more weight than many others. Some media awards are just thinly disguised “all-my-magazine-advertisers-gets-an-award” night. One automotive consulting firm in Malaysia actually has an award category for something as frivolous as “Debut Model of the Year.” Decisions on the awards were not debated nor had input from any neutral third parties. For the consultant’s case, it’s more of an “all-my-clients-gets-an-award” night. In some cases, awards is just a way for a company to promote oneself or gain additional revenue by charging licensing fees to car companies for the right to use their award’s logo in their marketing materials. The more award categories you have, the more your licensing fees revenue will be, and of course, the more people you please will lead to more advertising revenues for your magazine or consultancy work for your agency.

Notice that RJC only has 3 categories, and many of its members, being academicians and employed professionals outside the media field and are not dependent on advertising money for their living.

Some awards incorporate voting results from its readers, at least giving it some measure of neutrality. Autoworld’s COTY[3] is one example, while NST-CBT’s COTY2U[4] goes even further by organizing an autoshow carnival, where real buyers can compare and test drive vehicles side-by-side, before casting their vote. NST-CBT’s panel of judges even includes women so its not a ridiculous testosterone festival.

Source URL: http://www.motorindustry.org/2011/11/16/mazda-demios-skyactiv-g-1-3-engine-wins-rjc-award/

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