Japanese Car Manufacturers say the future includes the Internal Combustion Engine.

Three top Japanese car manufacturers have joined forces to develop new engines designed to decarbonise their fleet, but the focus will be on including combustion engines albeit combined with hybrid technology and carbon-neutral fuels. 

Toyota, Subaru and Mazda made a joint announcement that they would aim to optimise engines with electric and not transform to entirely EV-only offerings. The group said the idea was driven by the customer and an understanding of their diverse lifestyle and this includes a desire to retain Internal Combustion engines (ICE).

To create a carbon neutral future, they will admittedly need to “revolutionise” the engine packaging.  This, in their words, means smaller vehicles with better aerodynamics leading to increased fuel efficiency in order to the ever more stringent emissions regulations.

They envisage a future where their will be a mix of fuels that will include standard petrol/diesel, biofuels, synthetic fuels, hydrogen and electricity.

“We will continue to offer customers exciting cars by honing internal combustion engines for the electrification era and expanding the multi-pathway possibilities for achieving carbon neutrality,” said Mazda president and CEO Masahiro Moro.

The companies’ goal is still to dramatically reduce the carbon signature of the vehicles they produce by dramatically redesigning the drive trains whist ensuring that they are “in tune with the energy environment of the future.

Toyota, Subaru and Mazda are competitors in an ever more crowded market and the relationship has been described as being friendly competition. All three companies also plan to continue with the launching of EV models over the next few years.

Toyota are expected to launch at least 30 new EV models by 2030 and have set themselves a target of selling about 3.5 million a year by that time.  Ten of these are expected to be in ht brands offerings by 2025 but like others they are struggling with the smaller EV concept.  Vehicles like the Aygo will not have an EV model due to the cost of the battery being prohibitive.

Both Mazda and Subaru are lagging behind in the EV market at present.  Mazda though have committed USD8.7 billion to catch up with the rest and Subaru claim that they will have at least eight of their range electrified by 2028.