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Mazda believes the street to carbon-neutral motoring doesn’t should imply the tip of the internal-combustion engine. As a substitute, the corporate is constant work on algae-derived fuels, it says, that might energy present vehicles with net-zero and even adverse carbon emissions.
Talking on the 2025 Japan Mobility Present, Mazda CFO Jeff Guyton informed Australian journalists the corporate’s biofuel analysis goals to make petrol engines a part of the long-term answer, not the issue.
“Wouldn’t it’s nice if we may apply a reduced-carbon or carbon-neutral gas to all these vehicles which can be operating round on the streets?” he mentioned.
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“There’s greater than a billion vehicles on the planet, and , we’re speaking about including EVs step-by-step, which, by the best way, usually are not carbon impartial. They’re simply zero carbon on the tailpipe.”
Mr Guyton defined that Mazda’s engineers have already produced small batches of gas created from algae cultivated for its excessive oil content material.
“We’ve succeeded in creating or discovering a approach to develop algae which have the appropriate kind of fat and oils inside their cells, in order that we will simply get to the gas,” he mentioned.
“The gas itself may go in any automotive. Doesn’t should go in a particular Mazda engine, and that’s the purpose… couldn’t now we have a carbon-neutral gas that might go in any automotive and may deal with the put in automobile base.”

Mazda says the prototype gas may be refined from algae harvested in managed tanks, utilizing about 1000 litres of water to provide one litre of gas each two weeks. The present course of is sluggish and costly, however the firm believes it proves the idea is technically viable.
Whereas some automakers have backed e-fuels synthesised from captured CO2 and hydrogen, Mazda’s strategy focuses on organic carbon recycling utilizing residing organisms to transform atmospheric carbon into energy-rich oil, which is then changed into gas.
Mr Guyton added the corporate’s final objective is to make such fuels not simply carbon-neutral however carbon-negative, that means the manufacturing course of removes extra CO2 than the automobile emits.

“Whereas different persons are speaking about carbon impartial, we’re speaking about potential for carbon adverse, if it’s finished the appropriate approach,” he mentioned.
“In order that, , the extra you drive, the much less greenhouse gasoline there’s. Wow, that’s type of an fascinating concept.”
The analysis is a part of Mazda’s long-term “multi-solution technique,” which mixes electrification with ongoing funding in cleaner combustion applied sciences.
On the Tokyo present, the corporate additionally displayed the Imaginative and prescient X-Coupe and Imaginative and prescient X-Compact ideas, each previewing how Mazda intends to mix electrical and combustion drivetrains whereas exploring future fuels and carbon-capture methods.

In Australia, the place the New Car Effectivity Normal (NVES) will penalise higher-emission vehicles from 2025, Mazda’s push for different fuels may assist lengthen the lifespan of its petrol line-up whereas assembly stricter CO₂ targets. Whereas the model’s first electrical passenger automotive, the Mazda 6e, is due quickly, full battery EVs stay a low precedence.
For Mr Guyton, the algae program is a logical counterpoint to the federal government’s EV-only focus.
“If our society spent half as a lot time speaking about biofuel as we’re speaking about electrical autos… we’d be capable of actually do one thing,” he mentioned.
Mazda hasn’t dedicated to a timeline for manufacturing, however its willingness to again unconventional concepts reveals a model nonetheless decided to search out its personal approach to cleaner motoring even when it takes somewhat extra time to develop.
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