GM rivals Toyota, Subaru, and Mazda have announced plans to develop new carbon neutral engine technology. The announcement arrives amid broader shifts in the automotive industry as OEMs reevaluate their electrification goals. That includes GM, which previously announced plans to reintroduce plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the North American market.
The CEOs of Toyota, Subaru, and Mazda emphasized the importance of this collaboration in achieving a carbon-neutral society, highlighting the need for evolving engine technology to offer diverse options for customers. The initiative also aims to preserve jobs and maintain the competitiveness of the automotive industry.
The new initiative between the three Japanese automakers includes the integration of advanced internal combustion engines (ICEs) with electric drive units and hybrid components, while ensuring compatibility with various carbon-neutral fuels like e-fuel, biofuels, and liquid hydrogen, marking a significant step towards reducing carbon emissions while maintaining performance and an engaging driving experience.
The new engines will also be highly compact, which in turn could improve vehicle aerodynamics in pursuit of stringent emissions regulations. Each automaker will lean on its individual strengths – Mazda, for example, is focusing on rotary engine technology for hybrid setups, while Subaru is developing an electrified version of its boxer engine. Meanwhile, Toyota has provided a preview of a new prototype turbocharged 2.0L engine, which may find applications in a variety of segments, including pickups, sedans, and even sports cars. Toyota has also raced a hydrogen-burning engine in a 24-hours endurance event Japan.
The initiative will align with new emissions regulations, including the upcoming Euro 7 standards set to take effect in the next few years.
Meanwhile, GM has announced that it will reintroduce PHEV models to the North American market, rather than leapfrog hybrids entirely to transition straight to EVs as was planned originally. The move is said to provide a stopgap as the U.S. continues to develop its national charging network.
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Comments
Nice to see some car companies that actually have LEADERSHIP and look out for the needs of their customers.
Heck yeah, bring on more options!
The planet Earth has been around 4.6 billion years. During 80% of that time, Earth has been uninhabitable! The earth’s history includes one-billion years where the atmosphere was so toxic, there was literally no life on earth. There have been 5 extinctions during the life of Planet Earth. Carbon was never the reason for extinctions or any other cataclysmic event. There was more carbon dioxide on Earth 100 million years ago than today and since then, the amount of carbon dioxide has been diminishing. Carbon is only .004% of the Earth’s greenhouse gases. That is not man-made Carbon, but ALL Carbon. If that number gets to .002%, plant life starts dying. Why is it COLDER as we travel in space towards the sun? A: No greenhouse gases, like CO2, to hold in the Sun’s heat. I could go on all day. Humans are carbon based and seem to be the carbon that folks want to do away with. The goal is to give more to the rich, take away personal freedoms, and to depopulate
Well, good science and the bible indicate that God created this earth about 6,000 years ago and God will be the One who ends the earth’s life span rather than human actions.
One volcano eruption equals the emissions of all of the world’s ice vehicles. They need to get to work banning volcanoes or their “carbon neutral” efforts will be thwarted!
Right On Champ! Been preaching this since the Clinton Regime. Thanks for keeping the message going.
Considering that those three are basically the same company any more, this doesn’t surprise me at all. Toyota is the worlds biggest anti EV auto brand. Thus far, they have really just given compliance EV’s. Mazda is now totally in bed with Toyota and has zero EV’s. Subaru is basically run by Toyota and only offers one re-branded Toyota EV. Mazda has been trying to make rotary work forever with no real luck. The ones they have made in the past are quite problematic and it just doesn’t make sense.
So while these three Toyota amigos gaslight us and talk about all this stuff that has little chance of going big in the market, the real players like Tesla, Kia, Hyundai and hopefully GM will keep moving forward on the true future of vehicles in the form of EV/PHEV.
Sounds great, hope they don’t forget to make their ICE engines compatible with Garbane bio fuel.
I hope gm keep an eye on what these guys are doing.
Why?
So they do not fall even further behind in the marketplace.
Oh. Got it. So kind of like Toyota’s hydrogen claims.
Sorry, but none of what they are “working on” will be of much use. By the time the three of them come up with anything useful, EV’s will have progressed enough and they will be the ones who fell behind. Of course this is fitting since it’s these three that are already well behind.
I think this is going to be the future. Same conveniences as a gasoline car with benefits to the environment. A true win-win. And when it happens you’ll see demand for EVs plummet and go the way of the Laser Disk.
A Toyota forklift engine supply company got raided by the Japan police in January 2024 for cheating on emissions. Another Toyota owned company, Hino Truck division, also got bested because the Hino truck engine emissions were cheated going back a few years, to 2018 to recently. Remember that VW, Mercedes, Audi ( owned by VW ) and some others, all got caught and fined for cheating on emissions output. The Mercedes diesel engine used in their own cars and Jeeps, was dropped from the option list because the engines failed to meet EPA emissions specs after they got caught. All these brain dead engineers had to do was to use propane which is 36 to 37 percent hydrogen and has 104 octane to easily pass even future emissions specs. Even CNG nat gas has only about one percent hydrogen, so it does not burn as clean or put out the same power boost as propane. We strongly suggest to have a dual fuel system installed where the factory gasoline system is left in place, so that there is a backup fuel. In past dozen years in Canada, only propane fuel injectors are used as a old tech carb system is not legal anymore. As an aside, LPG gas is not propane. LPG is a mix of butane with propane. For the past 40 years in Canada, the pump price of propane has been no more than 60 percent of the price of gasoline. As of May 2024, propane in Toronto is selling for under a dollar per liter at Auto Fuel stations while gasoline at the same station is selling for $1.51 a liter. Enough said