The three Japanese competitors Toyota, Mazda and Subaru are to collaborate on the development of new engines. But despite that, each car manufacturer continues on its own track.
Car manufacturers are now investing heavily in launching new electric car models, but anyone who thought that combustion engines have reached the end of the road is wrong. At least Toyota, Mazda and Subaru seem to think so.
The three Japanese competitors will now collaborate on developing new internal combustion engines. However, it is not about developing a common engine to be used by all brands.
The idea is instead to jointly develop unique engines to be used by each brand. This means straight four-cylinder engines for Toyota, Wankel engines for Mazda and boxer engines for Subaru.
The new thing is that the engines will be able to run on several different types of fuel in addition to petrol, such as different types of biofuels, synthetic fuels and also hydrogen. They must also be able to be connected with electric motors to create different types of hybrid powertrains.
The engines must also be more efficient and physically smaller than today’s engines, which means that the front of the cars can be made lower to reduce air resistance and consumption.
The announcement is called by the car manufacturers a “multi-track solution”, which means that they are not only investing in battery electric cars, but also want to keep the door open for other solutions that can lower carbon dioxide emissions.
