Mazda: no hydrogen until infrastructure is ready

Mazda does not plan to join Japanese rivals Honda and Toyota in offering hydrogen-fuelled cars to the public.

The company continues to experiment with hydrogen-powered vehicles but says it is not ready to release its own rival to cars such as the Toyota Mirai and Honda FCX.

Michio Tomoyama, program manager for the new Mazda CX-3, says there is no point offering hydrogen technology for sale until the correct infrastructure is in place.

"Mazda has been continuing to study and research hydrogen," he says.

"[But] even if you have a fantastic hydrogen vehicle, vehicles alone do not support the permeation of hydrogen vehicles in society.

"It's indispensible to have the infrastructure ready for hydrogen."

Tomoyama-san says the company will consider offering a hydrogen-fuelled car at a later date.

"We are continuing to research hydrogen vehicles," he says.

 "When the time comes, when the people can get the hydrogen fuel, anywhere, anytime, that's the time we really try to make efforts with hydrogen vehicles."

The new CX-3 is available with a choice of 2.0-litre petrol or 1.5-litre diesel drivetrains. The energy-harvesting system used in the Mazda6 is not available, and there are no plans to introduce an electric or hybrid variant of the new CX-3.

"We don't have any thoughts of having a hybrid system in this model," Tomoyama says.

"In order to have a hybrid system you need to have enough room for the batteries as well as the engine.

"On the other hand we really wanted to secure the practicality that is required for an SUV. It doesn't necessarily mean this model is inferior to hybrid model."