Hans Greimel
Automotive News
June 11, 2009 - 11:44 am ET

TOKYO -- Mazda Motor Corp., a recent convert to hybrid technologies, now says it wants to put gasoline-electric drivetrains into its lineup in the next decade. And its hybrid powertrains will be on existing models, not hybrid-only nameplates.

"It's going to be the 20-teens that we're going to be actually engineering all this," Executive Vice President Philip Spender said today at the Japan launch of the Mazda3.

"And we're actually trying to pull that forward, if we can."

The hybrid system will likely be offered as an option on vehicles in Mazda's lineup and not as a hybrid-only model like the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight, Spender said.

As recently as this spring, Mazda was downplaying the promise of hybrids, saying it would seek higher fuel efficiency through improvements in traditional gasoline engines and transmissions.

"We've started to talk a lot more about it lately, in part because everybody else is," Spender said. Mazda is responding partly to new government incentives and emissions rules, he added.

"We now know what the carbon dioxide targets are. We now know what our fleet performance and our gaps are," Spender said.

In the meantime, Mazda will continue its push to improve engines and transmissions as part of a goal to improve the mileage of its global fleet 30 percent by 2015. (http://europe.autonews.com/article/2...NA02/906119987)