A senior Mazda official in North America has taken issue with the way the automotive industry is seemingly being pushed towards electric vehicle technology, insisting that the internal combustion engine is not yet on its deathbed.
According to Automotive News, Robert Davis, senior vice-president in charge of special assignments for North America, said that the “impending death of the internal combustion engine is overrated”.
Davis insisted that governments trying to force automakers to adopt EV technology was not the best approach.
“Let the industry find the best way to meet the clean air standard. Make it CO2, make it grams per mile, fuel economy — whatever feels best. But don’t mandate the particular powertrain,” he said.
Mazda, of course, had so far largely eschewed EV technology (although a freshly signed agreement with Toyota suggests it will in future “jointly develop technologies for electric vehicles” with its fellow Japanese automaker), instead focusing on making its Skyactiv-branded internal combustion engines more efficient.
“This is where the great thinkers of our industry need to speak up and be heard and make sure the manufacturers can do what they do best: compete against each other for the customers’ hearts and minds,” Davis said.
He went on to raise concerns about the difficulty in recycling lithium-ion batteries used in EVs.
“We need to consider that this is not zero emissions. This is remote emissions, or displaced emissions. We need to work on the best solution for the customers and for the environment in a common target, not an instruction manual on how to get there.
“The internal combustion engine has a strong future role in transportation. We certainly considered the adoption of new technologies, batteries, EVs, plug-in hybrids and everything else.
“But they all share the internal combustion engine. So before we go into the time and effort and expense of adding electrification, we were convinced that a solid, efficient internal combustion engine was critical,” Davis concluded.
