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Mazda
1) What social/economic/technological trends do you think will have the
greatest impact on car design in 2018?
We think it will become more important to consider the way to reduce CO2
by the measures such as weight reduction and aerodynamics, in view of
environmental concerns.
2) In what ways will the powertrain technology differ?
We think that environmental issues concerning the automobiles have different
perspectives according to the class of the car, region and the epoch.
Therefore we think it is important to have multi-solution such as improvement
of combustion engine, hybrid technology, bio-fuel and hydrogen technologies.
At Mazda we are advancing R&D into our hydrogen RE as one of Mazda’s
original technologies, for the anticipated arrival of hydrogen society.
3) What materials will vehicles use – can we expect serious alternatives
to steel to emerge?
We think that usage of light weight materials such as aluminum and plastic
will be emerging more. We think the usage of bio-plastic materials will
also be possible in the future.
4) What technologies will be making the big advances in safety in 2018?
Along with the advancement of active safety technologies, we think that
new technology such as Intelligent Transport System (ITS), coordinated
with social infrastructures, will be prominent in the future.
Mazda has been participating in real-world ITS technology testing in the
Hiroshima area, in collaboration with local government, industry and academia.
5) How will automotive engineers' working lives be different?
What skills/specialists will be important?
We think that certain technical skills that are currently not necessary
in automotive engineering will become vital. At Mazda, we don’t
encourage our engineers to be skilled in only one area, but to develop
a wide range of technical skills and be what we like to call “big-bone
engineer”, who has all-round capability in engineering.
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Millbrook
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January 2008
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