Just as Mazda took the wraps off of the face-lifted Mazda 3 with its new SKYACTIV four-cylinder gasoline engine, the company quietly reconfirmed that it will bring a diesel engine to the U.S. market in 18 months. The diesel is a member of the same family as the gas mill, and will probably arrive here in 2.2-liter form. When we tried this engine in a Mazda 6 last year, the company’s engineers were estimating fuel economy for that (rather large) car would be over 30 mpg city/40 highway. What’s especially impressive about the powerplant is that it doesn’t require any urea injection to meet U.S. emissions standards, unlike many current diesels from the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.
Separately, we’ve learned that the Mazda 6 will not receive any changes in the next few years—certainly none before the diesel engine arrives here—and this leads us to conclude that the big sedan won’t be the first recipient of the diesel four. With that in mind, SUVs like the CX-7 and upcoming CX-5 seem like good candidates.
