- Mazda CX-30 enjoys snowy Arctic road trip
- Showing off new 2.5-litre mild hybrid engine
- Mission powered by biofuel
- Saves 317 kg of CO2 compared with normal petrol
Mazda is on a mission to champion so-called ‘biofuels’ - and it has just taken a fleet of CX-30s to the Arctic Circle to prove a very important point.
The CX-30 is Mazda’s most compact hatchback-SUV crossover, a rival to the likes of the Ford Puma and Nissan Juke.
It’s a car that’s on special offer right now with Select.
Back in December last year, Mazda gave its CX-30 a new 2.5-litre petrol engine that comes complete with mild-hybrid wizardry and which offers 140 hp.
And to put that unit to the test, Mazda has just driven a fleet of 12 CX-30s from Malmo in Sweden to Tromso in Norway - a journey of 1,344 miles - using nothing but biofuel.
What the heck is biofuel when it’s at home, we hear you ask?
Well, rather than being extracted from the ground and made from dead dinosaurs, biofuel is manufactured from agricultural waste - particularly discarded straw - that would otherwise be unsuitable for animal or human consumption.
The amazing thing about organically-produced biofuel is that it goes into pretty much any car without the need for engine modification. The CX-30’s recorded fuel economy of around 40 miles to the gallon on their blat from the Baltic to the Arctic while Mazda reckons around 317 kg of CO2 was saved, per car, compared with regular petrol.
What’s the fly in the ointment?
At present, biofuel ain’t cheap. A litre of 98 RON biofuel from Euro provider SUSTAIN (who Mazda turned to) costs around £5 per litre. A litre of traditional 98 RON premium petrol in the UK costs around £1.50p right now. So, you can see the potential expense.
Still, Mazda quite rightly points out that biofuel still needs to be part of the bigger picture when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, alongside efficient electrified combustion engines. It’ll be even more compelling when the price of biofuel eventually comes down.
Jeremy Thomson, Managing Director at Mazda Motors UK, said: “At Mazda, we will continue to develop the internal combustion engine to meet consumer demand in parallel with our battery electric development, as part of our multi-solution approach. In Japan we are researching and developing engines to run on biofuel as well as algae fuels and synthetic fuels, and in Europe we are a member of the e-fuel alliance.
“Our drive to the very north of Europe demonstrates the capability of the Mazda CX-30 in extreme conditions and the benefits of the internal combustion engine and advanced biofuels. In total we will have saved approximately 317kg of CO2 per car on a 1300-mile journey by using SUSTAIN advanced biofuel”.
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