Techtrend

TROY, MI – The lead-acid battery could be on the verge of a comeback.

Passed over for more advanced technology as auto makers looked to improve performance in hybrid and electric vehicles, first with nickel-metal-hydride and then lithium-ion battery formulations, lead-acid could see new life as vehicle manufacturers search for lower-cost solutions to meeting increasingly tougher U.S. fuel-economy regulations.

At least that’s the working theory of Energy Power Systems here, which is promising a new-wave lead-acid battery it says is a fraction of the cost of Li-ion but will deliver the power needed in many hybrid applications.

“I’m going back to the future,” says Subhash Dhar, chairman, CEO and founder of 18-month-old battery upstart.

Battery developers touting the next big breakthrough are nothing new. But Dhar, with 30 years in the advanced-automotive-battery field on his resume, comes with a pedigree that makes his pitch hard to ignore.

As president of Energy Conversion Devices’ Ovonic Battery, Dhar led development of the first NiMH batteries now powering Toyota’s Prius and other hybrids. He also served as president of Ener1 (later EnerDel), a Li-ion battery maker that supplied the Think EV before restructuring through bankruptcy earlier this year.

Dhar is listed as the co-inventor on more than 30 battery and fuel-cell patents.

Where the industry may have gone wrong – his past work included, he says, is in swinging for the battery home run that would trigger an overnight consumer migration into pure EVs.

“It was a noble thought. It was a good target to have…but not (to) drive the entire industry without paying attention to what is commercially viable.”

Now with the bloom fading from the rose – EVs remain prohibitively expensive for mainstream buyers, and between-charge ranges still highly limited – auto makers are beginning to focus on more modest electrification ambitions as a way to meet proposed 54.5 mpg (4.3 L/100 km) fleet requirements for 2025.

To achieve that mileage target, hybrid vehicles, accounting for just 3% of the U.S. market, need to gain wider market acceptance, and that won’t happen unless costs come down, Dhar says.

“It’s not the (fault of) technology,” he says of anemic hybrid demand. “We know the technology. We’ve commercialized it; it’s in nine of 10 hybrid vehicles today.

“But where we failed is the cost aspect of it. We haven’t really made a whole lot of progress on the cost front.”

Material costs are to blame, the Energy Power executive says, pointing to the rising price of cobalt at $44/kg and nickel at $11/kg, compared with a fairly steady $1.80/kg for lead.

“So all of the efficiencies we’ve gained in terms of yield, manufacturing processes, whatever volume we have, we’ve more than lost in ongoing increases in cost of (advanced-battery) materials.”

That, Dhar says, is creating an opening for lower-cost lead-acid for everything from micro-hybrid (stop/start) applications to mild-hybrid vehicles and on up to full plug-in hybrids.

The secret of Energy Power Systems’ battery is its physical design.

“We’ve changed the particle size, the morphology of the material, how we make the electrodes, their dimensions and thicknesses (and) how they’re assembled,” Dhar says.

It all adds up to a more efficient energy flow.

Conventional 12V car batteries consist of six 2V lead-acid cells standing side by side, requiring electrons to flow up one side of the cell and down the other and onto the next cell.

The EPS battery is a single unit that results in a more direct energy path, Dhar says. Cells are positioned in an interlocking pattern in a single-cavity configuration, similar to the way bricks are laid to create a wall.

“So you get rid of all these extra connections, these extra lead terminals,” he explains. “You reduce the weight (and) the (electrical) resistance.”

He likens the strategy to engineering a faster way to pump 500 gallons (132 L) of water.

“If you want to (increase the flow), you put in a larger pipe or you put in 100 capillary tube pipes – a bunch of smaller pipes. You get the same 500 gallons (flowing more quickly) by simply reducing the friction in thepath that water has to go.

“I’m oversimplifying it, but that’s the principle here: Change the particle size, change the porosity, change the microstructure, change the battery design.”

Dhar says the result is a battery pack with a power rating of 1,900 W/kg, four times the best lead-acid battery on the market and even bettering the 1,450 W/kg of NiMH.

“And I have not added any expensive materials (or) changed the fundamental low-cost structure of lead-acid chemistry.”

He pegs cost at $15-$20 per kW vs. $40-$60 for NiMH and Li-ion.

Dhar envisions minimal additional battery-pack weight from the use of lead, because less-volatile lead-acid doesn’t require the same thermal-management support as more advanced chemistries.

A Prius NiMH pack is about 70% batteries and 30% thermal management and electronics, he says. The equivalent EPS pack would take up less room because it is 90% batteries, 10% air circulation and electronics, Dhar says, and would be one-third the cost.

An application in a mild hybrid such as General Motors’ e-Assist powertrain would add just 4.4 lbs. (2 kg), he adds, and be less than half the cost of the Li-ion pack the auto maker uses.

For automotive markets, EPS will target applications that need smaller batteries (0.5-2 kWh energy) with high power-to-energy ratios and larger batteries with energy at about 3-3.5 kWh.

The larger units would be enough for a plug-in hybrid application with a range of 8-11 miles (13-18 km) – about equivalent to the Prius Plug-In.

For a longer-range rechargeable such as the Chevrolet Volt, a scaled down Li-ion pack could be mated to an EPS battery, a combination that would take up less space and be half the cost of the Volt’s current pack, he says.

EPS has kept a low profile until now, because the startup isn’t alone in pursuing new lead-acid technology.

The Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium, for instance, now has some 70 members, including EPS. Potential competitor Exide Technologies is showcasing a lead-carbon battery for micro- and mild-hybrid applications in concept vehicles, for example, while others are working on combining lead-acid batteries with ultra-capacitors to perform similar tasks.

Dhar says his company has filed five patent applications and has another half-dozen in the works, but he believes once competitors see the EPS concept they’ll wonder why they didn’t think of the design themselves.

“If you look at it, it’s simple,” he says.

Energy Power’s operation here started with eight people a little over a year ago with backing from Townsend Capital. It now employs 30-plus scientists and engineers, many already busy developing second-generation battery that promises to be more powerful and last longer.

Work also has begun here on pilot production. For now, batteries are being assembled by hand, but automation is expected to reach 50% by March and 90% by September.

It took about six months to develop the basic concept for the battery, which Dhar expects to enter testing with the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory by mid-2013. That should be completed by the end of the year and provide the auto industry with independent data on the battery’s performance.

If all goes well, production will follow in fourth-quarter 2014 and be ramped up in early 2015 for aftermarket, conversion-vehicle, stationary and commercial-vehicle applications. The goal is to land light-vehicle business in time for the ’16 model year.

“At the end of (next) year, a serious (OE) guy will be sitting (here) with data in their hands from a national lab” discussing a product program, Dhar predicts.

Energy Power’s founder would like to set up a factory on the grounds of Ford’s former Lincoln assembly plant in Wixom, MI.

That huge complex, in the midst of a tear-down, initially was earmarked by the state of Michigan as the site of a new renewable-energy park. But that plan is being recast after two companies that were to serve as anchor investments, battery maker Xtreme Power and solar firm Clairvoyant Energy, failed to secure Department of Energy financing. Current talk is for the land to be used partially for retail development.

Dhar believes there still may be room there for an investment by EPS, however. The company earlier secured a $15 million state battery credit that would cover about 25% of the cost to set up manufacturing.

“We’re still hoping we can set up (in Wixom),” he says. “We only need 400,000 sq.-ft. (37,160 sq.-m) of building. Worst case is our plant is located in some other renaissance zone within the Detroit metropolitan area.”

Meantime, auto makers will continue to focus on NiMH and Li-ion as they move toward electrification, Dhar admits.

“They have no option – until they find out what we are doing,” he says.

From a sophisticated bread-and-butter 4-cyl. to the world’s most powerful production V-8,

the winners of the 2013 Ward’s 10 Best Engines awards stand as a tribute to internal combustion while auto makers wrestle with fuel-economy standards requiring a growing number of zero-emissions electric vehicles in the future.

Meanwhile, gasoline-fueled engines become more efficient and power-dense every year, and the majority of winners (five) for the second year in a row are 4-cyl. engines.

The transformation within the powertrain community has been rapid as engineering teams now slather attention on downsized engines. As recently as 2005, not a single 4-banger was honored.

This year’s winners:

• 3.0L TFSI Supercharged DOHC V-6 (Audi S5)
• 2.0L N20 Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (BMW 328i)
• 3.0L N55 Turbocharged DOHC I-6 (BMW 135is coupe)
• 3.6L Pentastar DOHC V-6 (Ram 1500)
• 2.0L EcoBoost DOHC I-4 (Ford Focus ST/Taurus)
• 5.8L Supercharged DOHC V-8 (Ford Shelby GT500)
• 2.0L Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (Cadillac ATS)
• 2.4L DOHC I-4 (Honda Accord Sport)
• 3.5L SOHC V-6 (Honda Accord)
• 2.0L FA DOHC H-4 Boxer (Subaru BRZ)

Although the WardsAuto editorial staff evaluated 11 electric vehicles or hybrids in a field of 40 powertrains during October and November, not a single one made the cut this year.“When hybrids and EVs have been on the list previously, it was because they were revolutionary and compelling,” WardsAuto World Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter says.

“If next-generation EVs and hybrids raise the bar beyond the current Toyota Prius, Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt, then we’ll be happy to recognize them.”

Now in its 19^th year, the Ward’s 10 Best Engines competition pits the latest engines available in the U.S. market against the returning winners from the previous year. To be eligible, an engine must be available in a production vehicle on sale within the first quarter of 2013 and with a base price of less than $55,000.

With so many new engines flooding the marketplace, it has become increasingly difficult for many to stay on the list, which makes the fourth year in a row for Audi’s 3.0L supercharged V-6 all the more remarkable.

Occasionally, WardsAuto editors are eager to boot repeat winners to make room for new blood, but that wasn’t the case with Audi’s blown 333-hp direct-injection V-6 that has driven much of the auto maker’s U.S. success in cars ranging from the sporty S4 to the luxurious A8 and even Porsche and Volkswagen hybrids.

Some WardsAuto editors averaged better than 21 mpg (11.1 L/100 km) in the S5 and raved about the engine’s suave demeanor, whether at idle or wide-open throttle. In the S5, the first-rate engine and transmission go together with the chassis like a Vulcan mind meld.

BMW secures two repeat wins for the 2.0L N20 turbocharged 4-cyl. in the 328i sedan and 3.0L N55 turbocharged inline-6 in the riotous 135is coupe.

The 4-cyl. goes head-to-head with a batch of new 2.0L turbos that are smooth, quiet, powerful and capable of motivating luxury cars as well as 7-passenger SUVs.

But the BMW N20’s calling card is fuel efficiency: Achieving close to 30 mpg (7.8 L/100 km) in the 328i with a European-style stop/start system, the 328i topped its rivals by several miles per gallon. A key enabler is a svelt 8-speed automatic transmission.

A WardsAuto editor describes BMW’s direct-injection 4-cyl., making 120 hp/L with its twin-scroll turbocharger and gratifying low-end torque, as the type of engine many 2.0L turbos hope to be some day. This engine is fast becoming the workhorse in the auto maker’s highest-volume vehicles.

BMW’s other repeat winner, the 3.0L turbocharged inline-6, finds a new application in the small-ish 1-Series that boosts output to 320 hp, up from 300 hp in the original applications in the 3-Series, 5-Series, 6-Series and the X cross/utility vehicles.

The 3-time winner is more than adequate in those bigger, heavier vehicles, so imagine what it can do in a car with a curb weight of 3,373 lb. (1,530 kg) and an additional 17 lb.-ft. (23 Nm) of torque.

The sport-tuned exhaust makes the car sound like a bona fide 1960s muscle car, while achieving nearly 23 mpg (10.2 L/100 km) in our evaluations and always able to make the tachometer needle dance. The direct-injection N55 engine does more work by 2,500 rpm than most engines do at wide-open throttle.

Another stout 2.0L direct-injection turbocharged 4-cyl. that muscles its way back into the winners’ circle with a remarkable 136 hp/L comes from General Motors, in the all-new rear-wheel-drive Cadillac ATS.

This engine replaces a similar 2.0L Ecotec turbo that won a Ward’s 10 Best Engines award last year in the front-wheel-drive Buick Regal GS. But the new version reduces engine friction some 16%; incorporates a more-active continuously variable valve timing system for better breathing; boosts highway fuel economy 4 mpg (1.7 km/L); and positions the ATS to compete head-on with well-established German brands.

GM developed the 2.0L turbo alongside a new naturally aspirated 2.5L 4-cyl., which also was a contender, and the two engines share some componentry, which makes both engines more profitable than those they replace. That’s smart engineering. Installation volumes also will be higher for both engines, which power the ATS and new Chevrolet Malibu.

Ford is one of three auto makers earning two trophies this year, including a repeat winner for the 2.0L EcoBoost direct-injection turbocharged 4-cyl. that has emerged as a dominant piece of Dearborn’s powertrain portfolio.

So flexible and adroit is the 2.0L EcoBoost that it powers most of Ford’s passenger cars and utility vehicles, from the Fusion, fullsize Taurus and 252-hp Focus ST (with exhaust burble piped into the cabin) to the Edge, Escape and 7-passenger Explorer.

WardsAutoeditors drove the newest applications for the 2.0L EcoBoost in the Focus ST hot hatch and approached 28 mpg (8.4 L/100 km) without being gentle, then switched to the 2-ton Taurus family sedan and managed better than 24 mpg (9.8 L/100 km), even loaded down with passengers. It’s tremendously versatile.

Honda returns to the Ward’s 10 Best Engines list with two wins for powerplants in the all-new Accord: the 2.4L 4-cyl. that represents Honda’s first direct-injection engine in North America, as well as a 3.5L port-injection V-6.

The clean-sheet I-4 is stunningly efficient. Over the course of a 537-mile (864-km) test drive, two editors exceeded 33 mpg (7.1 L/100 km) in this generously proportioned sedan that gets up to speed with no problem thanks to 189 hp, ample low-end torque and a wonderful mid-range punch.

A 6-speed manual transmission in the Accord Sport amps up this engine’s fun quotient, but driving enthusiasts also will find the all-new continuously variable transmission, developed internally, to be surprisingly smooth and enjoyable. With excellent transmissions, this isn’t just a bread-and-butter 4-cyl. engine. Now it’s a piled-high deli sandwich.

The SOHC 60-degree V-6, a Ward’s 10 Best Engines winner in 2005, 2008 and 2009, bows with several significant updates in the Accord and makes a convincing argument that conventional port-injection engines can be powerful and fuel-stingy, while being less expensive to build.

WardsAutoeditors say this engine “positively storms” and “pulls like a freight train at hard throttle,” while feeling much stronger than the 278 hp and 252 lb.-ft. (342 Nm) of torque on the spec sheet.

On the efficiency front, Honda’s VCM cylinder-deactivation system is improved, shutting down three cylinders at a time during light loads. In the past, the system deactivated two or three cylinders at a time. In our real-world evaluations, the Accord V-6 topped 29 mpg (8.1 L/100 km) for several editors, unheard of for most any 6-cyl. engine.

Another outstanding port-injection V-6, the 3.6L Pentastar, comes from Chrysler and earns a Ward’s 10 Best Engines award for the third straight year.

The supremely smooth Pentastar has impressed us in muscle cars, SUVs, CUVs, minivans and luxury sedans, and now it turns in another stellar performance in the fullsize Ram pickup.

Despite its 5,073-lb. (2,301-kg) curb weight, the Pentastar summons a boatload of low-end torque and can tow 6,500 lbs. (2,948 kg), all the while sounding burly and confident and delivering best-in-class fuel economy.

And a new thermal management system raises engine and transmission fluid temperatures more quickly, reducing parasitic losses and improving fuel efficiency 1.7%.

The ’13 Ram, with its sparkling Pentastar mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission, is the first fullsize pickup truck engine to be evaluated and make the Ward’s 10 Best Engines list since 2009, when the 5.7L Hemi V-8 in the Ram pickup won its sixth award in seven years.

Rounding out this year’s list is a 2.0L 4-cyl. boxer engine from Fuji Heavy Industries in the Subaru BRZ coupe that proves forced induction is not essential for engines to achieve today’s high specific outputs.

Churning out an unusually high 100 hp/L, this naturally aspirated “FA” boxer, positioned low in the engine bay to improve the BRZ’s handling characteristics, absolutely succeeds in selling this sporty, lightweight coupe.

Although the BRZ and its Scion FR-S twin were developed with Toyota, Subaru gets credit for the engine. Toyota, however, assisted by providing the unique fueling system that integrates both port- and direct-injection for each combustion chamber.

The 2.0L FA, soon to be joined by a turbocharged version in the Subaru lineup, musters luscious mid-range torque, loves to rev hard and sounds tremendous, while being sedate at idle.

WardsAuto editors hammered the BRZ and still managed nearly 29 mpg (8.1 L/100 km) with the 6-speed manual and nearly 27 mpg (8.7 L/100 km) with the 6-speed automatic. It’s a great daily driver and comes well-equipped for about $25,000.

Diesel-engine aficionados will notice no oil burners on this year’s list. That’s because the only eligible vehicle, the Audi Q7 TDI, with a new 3.0L turbodiesel, was unavailable for evaluation.

But next year’s competition will feature several diesels from auto makers such as General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Mazda, as well as the Audi Q7.

Ten WardsAuto editors chose the winners by evaluating 40 new or significantly upgraded engines in their routine daily commutes around metro Detroit between October and early December.

Editors scored each engine based on power, technology, observed fuel economy, relative competitiveness and noise, vibration harshness characteristics. There is no instrumented testing.

To be eligible, each engine must be available in a regular-production U.S.-specification model on sale no later than first-quarter 2013, in a vehicle with a base price below $55,000.

Winners from the 2012 competition automatically were eligible and evaluated against the new or improved engines for 2013.

The awards will be presented at a Jan. 16 ceremony in Detroit during the North American International Auto Show.

The Ward’s 10 Best Engines competition has recognized outstanding powertrain achievement for 18 years. In this installment of the 2012 Behind the 10 Best Engines series, WardsAuto looks at the development ofMazda’s inventive approach to boosting fuel economy.

Mazda is taking a very different approach to meeting government and consumer demands for increasing fuel efficiency, and it appears to be paying off, at least in the short run.

Instead of betting billions on hybrid- and battery-electric vehicles, Mazda’s strategy, called “Skyactiv,”  is a comprehensive effort to substantially increase the efficiency of every element of every vehicle, beginning with engines and transmissions and continuing through bodies and chassis.

“Our goal is to improve fuel economy globally by 30%,” says Mazda Product Planning Executive Officer Kiyoshi Fujiwara at Skyactiv’s U.S. press introduction. “And our answer is still the ICE (internal combustion engine). Our top priority is to radically improve this technology.”

Skyactiv begins with internal-combustion engines, both gasoline and diesel, made more efficient using a building-block process that progressively launches efficiency enhancements.

These technologies eventually will give way to vehicle electrification strategies to meet aggressive U.S. corporate average fuel economy requirements on the horizon.

The key is putting off the latter until those technologies are further developed and more affordable.

Mazda says the ’12 Mazda3’s new 155-hp 2.0L Skyactiv gasoline 4-cyl. consumes 15% less fuel than its same-displacement predecessor, making mileage roughly equivalent to a conventional 2.2L diesel. Other improvements include 15% more torque, especially in the low-to-mid-rpm range, a 10% weight reduction and 30% less internal friction.

“The ICE still has substantial losses,” Mazda Powertrain Development Manager Ritaro Isobe says. “We needed to reduce them further. Our vision was ideal combustion, and we have applied technology innovation to achieve that.”

Isobe calls Mazda’s (global) 14:1 compression ratio for the engine “groundbreaking” even though it is a lower 13:1 in the U.S. version of the ’13 CX-5 compact cross/utility vehicle, and an even more modest 12:1 inWardsAuto’s ’12 Mazda3 test car.

The compression ratio is lower in the CX-5 so it can accommodate 87-octane regular gas in the U.S. and even lower in the Mazda3 because the car lacks the engine bay room needed to accommodate the full Skyactiv engine’s unique 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, a strategic element of the “breakthrough” marriage of technologies that Mazda engineers are using to prevent pre-ignition knock at such high compression.

Other key technologies include direct multi-hole gas injection, dual variable-valve timing, new-design pistons, shorter combustion duration and delayed ignition during startup.

Compared with the competing Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra I-4s, “The Mazda3 stands taller…with a free-revving vigor directly attributable to its best-in-class torque peak of 148 lb.-ft. (201 Nm) at a reasonable 4,100 rpm. That extra oomph is noticeable when pulling away from stop lights and passing on the highway,” WardsAuto editor Tom Murphy says.

Despite repeated thrashing by the judges over the course of a 750-mile (1,207-km) evaluation, the Mazda3’s DI 2.0L “gleefully responds with fuel-economy numbers that top 34 mpg (6.9L/100 km),” Murphy adds.

Equipped with the new Skyactiv 6-speed automatic transmission, the Mazda3 sedan is rated by the Environmental Protection Agency at 28/40 mpg (8.4-5.9 L/100 km) city/highway.

“The combustion research that led to our ability to get to a 13:1 compression ratio on 87-octane gas goes back about 10 years, long before there was a Skyactiv program, with real fundamental research into the combustion process and how we could improve it,” says Mazda North America Vehicle Evaluation Manager Dave Coleman. “Some manufacturing innovations also played a big part in getting it off the ground.”

The concept is obvious, Coleman says. Higher expansion ratios capture more combustion energy, a fundamental engine characteristic. “The breakthrough was ignoring what we have learned over the last hundred years as to what compression ratios are possible and studying more deeply exactly what we can do using the latest technology available to us,” Coleman says.

The enablers that led to such high compression ratios were a “complicated web of things,” Coleman says. “The basics of how to avoid knock haven’t changed. The main thing that causes knock is high temperature, and higher compression ratios increase temperatures, so you want the intake charge as cool as possible. If we can lower the temperature of the fresh-air charge enough, we can raise compression a calculable amount.”

Racing engines for many years have used as much valve overlap as possible to push the exhaust out of each cylinder before pulling in a fresh, cool air charge. Since residual exhaust gas is very hot, even a small amount will dramatically increase the temperature in the cylinder. So Mazda makes clever use of its VVT to enable more aggressive cam timing profiles to fully purge hot exhaust gases.

Another key is the long 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, which allows Mazda to get all the exhaust out of each cylinder without a pressure pulse from another interfering and pushing it back in. But the long exhaust manifold also moves the catalyst farther away, making it hard to light off quickly to reduce emissions during startup.

“The direct injection is helping with that tremendously,” Coleman says. “It inherently improves our ability to get a high compression ratio because the fuel atomization is so fine that we get much better cooling effect from spraying the fuel directly into the combustion chamber.”

Mazda uses direct injection to very carefully tailor combustion conditions at cold start to get essentially a stratified charge that is easy to ignite. The rich mixture adjacent to the spark plug gets started, and the ball of burning fuel ignites the lean mixture, Coleman says.

That stratified charge is possible thanks to very fast DI that can inject a little fuel during the intake stroke, then a bit more during the compression stroke, to enable very stable combustion, which in turn allows very delayed ignition timing during cold start.

“The later we ignite the fuel, the later it continues burning and the hotter it is going out the exhaust. So we’re running very retarded ignition timing during the first 15 seconds or so to create more heat to light off that catalyst and get it up to temperature,” Coleman says.

One other contributor to the engine’s efficiency is that it cruises open-throttle at light loads. “It actually runs with the throttle open almost like an Atkinson cycle,” Coleman says. “Other companies are doing this as well, but we’re more picky about the details. We call it the Mazda Miller Cycle, because the Miller Cycle is our method of obtaining an Atkinson Cycle.”

And clearly, Mazda looks at its current high compression ratios as just a start. During development, engineers were experimenting with 15:1 and even 18:1 compression ratios.

Eventually there will be some type of convergence between diesel and gasoline engines, with the ultimate goal to bring homogeneous charge compression ignition into the equation. “That is everyone’s Holy Grail,” Coleman says.

“I think some of what we’ve learned in this process will get us to that stage, sooner rather than later. You’ll notice that the compression ratios of our diesel and gas engines in premium-fuel countries are the same at 14:1 now. That is somewhat coincidental, but both of these engines have been driving toward that point, getting more similar.”

Of course, every auto maker is working on both powertrain and full-vehicle efficiency from roof to tire patch.

But Mazda is betting its major competitors’ enormous investments in EVs, HEVs, fuel cells and other advanced technologies may limit their near-term investments in ICEs, transmissions, bodies and chassis enough that key competitive advantages can be gained and CAFE requirements met with much-improved conventional powertrains. At least for the next few years, until Mazda also will have to electrify to meet CAFE standards.

What’s to prevent others from copying what Mazda has done? The auto maker says it has about 150 patents on every detail of what makes its Skyactiv engine work.

http://wardsauto.com/vehicles-amp-technology/how-mazdas-skyactiv-fuel-efficiency-technology-works