Mazda’s receives award for i-Stop system

By Matt Brogan | November 18th, 2009

Mazda has won the 2009 Automotive Researchers’ and Journalists’ Conference of Japan (RJC) Technology of the Year award for its idling stop system, known as “i-stop”.

The i-stop system is a fuel saving device fitted to direct injection engines that shuts down the engine when the car comes to rest.

Combustion energy is used to restart the engine in just 0.35 seconds, about half the time of most other systems, while noise and vibration suppression makes the process smooth and almost imperceptible.

Mazda Japan has been fitting i-stop to all new Mazda3s (known as Axela in its home country) since its June launch, achieving 15 per cent fuel efficiency gains over the previous model.

Senior managing executive officer in charge of R&D, Seita Kanai, said the use of i-stop in the Axela was just the beginning of its application at Mazda.

“Mazda’s i-stop system is one of the green technologies that form the base of our future product strategy.

“It improves fuel economy without adversely affecting driving performance. In this way, we believe i-stop perfectly reflects Mazda’s commitment to provide our customers with driving pleasure as well as superb environmental and safety performance.

“We are honoured to receive this award.”

The RJC technology award is Mazda’s third, following the Miller-cycle engine (used in the Eunos 800) in 1993 and the RENESIS Rotary engine (for the RX-8) in 2003.

4:20 All Day

10 points to Mazda’s uber-creative marketing department for that highly creative and original name. Must have been an all-night brain buster.

MJ

lol HA HA HA HA HA! very funny comment All Day!
Baddass

You must have forgot that to be truly modern, an appliance has to have a lower case ‘i’ in front of it.

4:20 All Day

iDIDFORGET 2.0

Whitbomb07

Slightly off topic as this 3/Axela with i-stop isn’t turbocharged but does anyone know what long term affect these sorts of systems can have on Turbo charged vehicles?

I.E. If your fanging a Turbocharged car (be it petrol or diesel as there are a few of both out there now) with this system and then pull up at a set of lights could you be looking at the Turbo seizing up?

Are there any protection systems to keep fresh oil being applied to the turbo with the engine switched off?

I’ve never been able to find an answer to this, it’s all well and good that this stuff saves fuel, but if it’s going to cost you a turbo later, is it worth it?

Regards

Whitbomb07

Simon

Modern turbos don’t require such a system or even a turbo timer for that matter.

Whitbomb07

Simon

So are you telling me you can drive until the turbo is red hot and then just switch it off?

I find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t cook off the oil and eventually lead to the turbo seizing up.

Regards

Whitbomb07

Falcodore

Isnt that why intercoolers were invented, so turbos dont get red hot and seize up?

D

Falcodore,
Intercoolers have nothing to do with cooling the turbo – intercoolers cool the charge air (the air about to enter the cylinders) to make a bigger bang.

Modern turbo charged engines have electric oil and water cooling pumps which continue to pump oil and water after the engine has shut down to cool the turbo. This does away with the need for a turbo timer.

Alex

I don’t know why they’ve won an award for it. I’ve read three reviews for it and they all said that it worked, but it was relatively flawed. Doesn’t sound like something that should be winning awards to me.

And why i-stop? What’s with the i? Is it just a rip off of iPod and iMac? Because I can’t think of what it could mean for a car.

Andrew M

Perhaps Hyundai know…..
Their who language revolves around “i”.
Im sure it meant something at one point, but the way its loosly thrown around more and more, I doubt it has meaning
Baji

I believe the whole ‘i’ prefix was used first by apple for the Imac, standing for “Internet-mac” and from there its just gotten a bit crazy. Manfucatures are using the prefix ‘i’ for everythign they’ve got. I don’t really have any idea why, but I believe mazda might have chosen ‘i’ to stand for ‘intelligent’. i.e. Intelligent Stop.

But still, quite a cheap gimmick to use the prefix ‘i’.

Andrew M

When they say a 15% reduction in fuel, do they mean on the combined cycle, or the city cycle alone???

Although pretty crafty, this would be useless on the hwy or where traffic is flowing (even if slightly flowing).

Would have to be a 15% reduction in the stop start stuff
Mazdaman

probably just a contraction of idle-stop

Falcodore

Think you hit the nail on the head there Mazdaman.

This could actually prove to be more reliable than other stop-start systems as it doesnt use the starter motor to restart the engine, thereby reducing wear ‘n’ tear on the starter motor and other ancillaries.

Mazdaman

interesting point
mazda don’t always do it first but when they do do it, they do it well

Falcodore

Have to disagree Mazdaman, i believe Mazda’s i-stop system is a world first, very innovative, but when they do something they do it well.
Mazda’s quality and reliability is 1st class, speaking from experience.

http://OzMPSclub.com OzMPSclub

Mazda when are you bringing this donwunder

Well done Mazda….congrats

Safety Frist

My underswtanding is they have kept this as a domestic market only vehicle to ensure longevity of the motor. Remember the Japanese domestic market has one of the youngest car parks globally. The system and it’s wear and tear effects are not known stretched as far as say the 8 year average car park in Australia. It would be marketing suicide if they released it and then 6>8 years down the track the things died in a big way. It would absolutely kill them as a brand. So their best bet is to keep it domestic for as long as possible….

Andrew

I think this would be great for city driving.. Usually you get stuck at lights for at least 4 minutes these days.. Think of the amount of lights you are likely to be stuck in when driving in peak periods? This would be a fantastic system to have in any car.. So long as it works.

It is a reasearches award, so I suppose its more around the idea, than a 100% production ready system.

A 0.35 start time is extremely quick. Hopefully this system never makes it into Camry’s though as this will just add to the time you wait behind one.. I think a full 5 second delay is built into camry drivers around sydney.

Falcodore

Its not just Sydney, Andrew. Up here on the north coast of NSW it seems their brains are constantly in neutral.
Andrew M

Is that 5 seconds including, or on top of their time it takes to figure out which way the ONE WAY arrow is pointing before proceeding thinking they know better??

Also once you run low on fuel from waiting behind one, you then get stuck at the servo waiting for them to move their vehicle. I swear after they dawdle in to pay for their fuel, they slowly return to their car, then they then decide to read a pottery magazine or something seemingly oblivious that a line is backing up out the gate behind them.

I got caught behind one the other day, and no joke I reckon I sat there for a genuine 2 mins after they returned to their vehicle before they moved on.

Oh yeah, this Mazda system sounds alright hey…..