New Mazda3 i-stop announced

The new Mazda 3 only started to show up in UK showrooms last month, but already Mazda is adding to the range with the new Mazda3 i-stop, which first showed at Geneva this year.

We won’t go on about our review of the new Mazda 3 as you’ve heard it all before, but it is a very good car. And the addition of a model with stop-start certainly adds something new to the range, particularly for buyers who drive most of the time in town.

Mazda label this as part of their ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom’ strategy. I suppose everything as to have a handle these days. But the stop-start system in the Mazda 3 is very clever. It uses combustion energy to restart the engine in just 0.35 seconds, with only a little help from the starter motor. Utilising this system – which gives a small kick to the starter and an electronic pulse to get the crankshaft moving – uses less fuel and is quicker than conventional stop-start technology.

The Mazda3 i-stop also gets a direct injection version of Mazda’s 2.0 litre engine which, combined with the stop-start, give average consumption of 41.5mpg and CO2 emissions of 159g/km.

Mazda are also introducing a new catalytic converter to the Mazda3. Which doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but by using single nanotechnology to embed the precious metals that do the work directly in to the catalyst support matrix, it not only stops the metals degrading under heat but uses only 10% of the metals used in a conventional cat. Which has to be good news in terms of cost and resources.

Mazda are pretty chuffed with what they’ve done, and have issued a mega press release on the Mazda3 i-stop. Take a look if you want every nut and bolt detail.