Mazda 3 hybrid review: Does Mazda's SkyActiv-X hybrid technology work? Paul finds out!

CarExpert

Mazda has a new hybrid car! The 2020 Mazda 3 X20 Astina SkyActiv-X hybrid (what a mouth full!) is the brand's all-new hybrid hatch. It also uses what Mazda claims is revolutionary engine technology that mixes the benefits of compression ignition from a diesel car, with spark ignition from an internal combustion car, along with 24V mild hybrid. Does it work? Paul Maric gives you an honest review of the technology that Mazda claims will extend the internal combustion engine.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-mazda-3-skyactiv-x-hybrid-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:54 Interior: 02:36 Infotainment: 03:39 Features: 05:41  Practicality: 06:58 SkyActiv-X Technology Explained: 10:13 On the Road: 12:39 Verdict: 18:45  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mazda #review #skyactivx #hybrid #mazda3 @MazdaOfficial @mazdaaustralia

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Mazda claims to have revolutionised the internal combustion process with an engine

00:05 that gives you the benefits of a diesel plus the benefits of a petrol, and they've called

00:09 the technology SkyActiv-X, and that is what we're testing out today. You know I'm a keen

00:14 technology buff, so I want to see whether this actually works, or if it's a bit of a

00:17 gimmick. This is only available in the top spec Astina, and you can get it in the hatch

00:21 or the sedan. You can also get it with a six-speed auto or a six-speed manual. It's priced at

00:25 just under $42,000 for the automatic, or $1,000 less for the manual, and this really only

00:31 competes with cars like the Toyota Corolla Hybrid in terms of fuel efficiency. Today

00:35 we're going to do a detailed review to see whether it works and what it's like behind

00:39 the wheel. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the

00:42 time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use the chapters

00:46 below. And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit subscribe and

00:49 also press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive something revolutionary.

00:54 Let's talk exterior. You've got eight colours to choose from, and the metallic colours are

00:58 $495 extra. The rest are free of charge. I love the design here. I know we've reviewed

01:04 the Mazda 3 before, but I've just got to comment here on how good this thing looks. It is a

01:09 styling proposition, and I think that's the path Mazda is heading down, especially with

01:12 some of the premium pricing they're coming up with at the moment. So you can see the

01:15 big Mazda logo there, and this huge grille. The grille has this kind of 3D-printed material

01:21 on the front. It's really cool. It's a bit like a cheese grater. And then you can see

01:26 here that there's black highlights around the car to really sort of help divide the

01:30 colours. Works well here with this sort of, I don't know what you'd call this colour,

01:33 it's like a grey gunmetal type thing. You have full LED headlights with LED daytime

01:39 running lights, front parking sensors down there. If we zip around to the side, you've

01:43 got 18-inch alloy wheels. Quite a nice-looking alloy wheel. It matches up with those black

01:48 highlights around the headlights, so you're getting that really sort of dark theme to

01:52 the car, and it really suits that stylistic approach they're going for.

01:56 Have a look down the side here. So the wing mirror has the indicator built into it, but

02:00 this whole profile is very soft and rounded. A lot of cars these days have these edgy lines

02:05 down the side of the car, whereas this is all just about smooth surfaces, all the way

02:10 down here to more black highlights. Now come around to the back. Mazda's tail light game

02:14 has picked up immensely with LED units here, and I love this design with the four pods

02:19 of LED lights for the indicator. It looks really nice. Now this is how you're going

02:23 to be able to tell that this has this revolutionary engine, Skyactiv-X, and they've popped the

02:28 badge on the back there. More black highlights down the bottom, and again, it's just a way

02:32 to differentiate the styling here of the top-spec Astina model.

02:36 So we're inside the Mazda 3 now, and you can see here that this top-spec looks fantastic.

02:41 I love these lashings of red highlight they have along the dashboard, and the beautiful

02:44 stitch lines you can see there. They've got these air vents hidden down here, plus a little

02:48 faux vent. It's just really nicely presented, and I think Mazda's really nailing styling

02:53 at the moment. They're putting a lot of effort into making sure the car feels and looks premium,

02:57 and you kind of have to when you're charging almost $42,000 for this car. So I think they've

03:02 gone that one extra step they need to to make you feel better about spending this kind of

03:06 cash.

03:07 The seats are really not fantastic. I mean, I would expect that to be fairly sort of stable.

03:14 The rest is okay, but you know, I think this kind of stuff just is a bit of a letdown because

03:19 you expect it to be nice and sturdy and not sort of moving around easily when you go to

03:23 open it.

03:24 Now, how soft are the key surfaces in this cabin? Well, we have a hardness tester, also

03:29 known as a durometer, and I've tested the surfaces. If you're interested to see how

03:33 this car compares to other cars, just go down to the description. I've got a link there

03:36 to a table where you can see what other results look like.

03:39 Okay, let's talk infotainment. The all-new Mazda infotainment system is called Mazda

03:44 Connect. It replaces MZD Connect. Now, if you do want a full detailed infotainment review,

03:49 you can click up here, but today what I'll do is just walk you through the basics just

03:53 to give you an idea of what that looks like, plus the screen ahead of the driver.

03:57 So it consists of an 8.8-inch display. It's gone away from being a touchscreen, so you

04:01 can't touch any of that anymore. It's all controlled here using this iDrive-esque controller.

04:06 It allows you to flick through the different menus.

04:09 One thing that I will point out here that's specific to the Skyactiv-X is the fuel efficiency

04:13 monitor. It shows you which parts of the engine are running, how full the battery is that's

04:18 used underneath the body of this car. I'll show you what that looks like when we're driving

04:21 later on, but this is the key difference between this and other Mazda models.

04:24 Now, in terms of audio, you have AM, FM and DAB+ digital radio. You also have the ability

04:31 to stream USB devices and also Bluetooth devices. If you do want to connect your smartphone,

04:36 there's Apple CarPlay and Android Auto built in, but both of those will require a cable.

04:40 It's not a wireless system. The integration's good, but the only downside is because it's

04:44 not a touchscreen, you have to use this rotary controller to skip through all the different

04:49 parts of the screen, and it kind of takes forever to scroll through to reach the right-hand

04:53 side menu. I think that integration could be a little bit better, but it is a bonus

04:56 that it takes up the entire screen.

04:58 In terms of communications, you have Bluetooth connectivity for your phone if you don't have

05:02 smartphone mirroring, and then you can control that using the voice recognition system. It

05:06 generally works pretty well, allows you to call contacts and also put in navigation addresses.

05:11 And in terms of the built-in navigation, it works fairly well. It's quick and easy to

05:14 use and entry of destination addresses can be done with a full address or via points

05:20 of interest.

05:21 There's also a 7-inch display ahead of the driver that has your tachometer in a digital

05:24 display plus your energy consumption. You can configure this to display different things,

05:29 so if you press the info button, it'll cycle through to your safety settings. There's also

05:33 a speed sign readout built into that display, and then there's a head-up display ahead of

05:37 the driver as well with speed sign recognition and also a digital speedometer.

05:41 OK, moving on from infotainment to the rest of the features that you get standard. So,

05:45 dual-zone climate control. I do love these knurled switches on that climate control system.

05:50 Heated seats for the front row, a heated steering wheel for those chilly mornings. You get two

05:55 USB ports, one here and then one inside the glovebox with a 12-volt outlet. You've also

06:00 got a sunroof fitted standard.

06:02 And then moving on to the safety technology, you have low and high-speed autonomous emergency

06:07 braking with pedestrian detection, semi-autonomous lane-keeping assistant and radar cruise control.

06:12 You have blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirrors, front and rear cross-traffic

06:16 alert. And I want to show you the reverse view camera. So, it's a 360-degree camera,

06:21 but the quality is really high. So, you can see here with the reverse element, you can

06:24 clearly see out the back there it works really well at night and then it paints you that

06:27 3D picture.

06:28 Now, when you do switch over to drive, it automatically switches to the front camera.

06:32 So, you don't really need to do anything and you get guidelines out the front as well.

06:36 So, really nice integration and I like the way they've put it all in that screen.

06:39 Now, what does the key look like? Glad you asked. Here it is. So, this is the front of

06:43 it. You can see the Mazda symbol there, black backing. You get a bit of brushed chrome,

06:48 nothing on the back and then you get a lock and unlock button. It's a proximity sensing

06:53 key, so you just leave that in your pocket, grab the door handle and then hit the start

06:57 button to start the car.

06:58 Okay, moving on to practicality and let's start with storage. Where are you going to

07:01 put your phone? So, there's plenty of little nooks around here. Up the front there, you

07:04 have the perfect little holder for the phone. It doesn't have wireless phone charging, which

07:08 is a little bit annoying. You do have two cup holders down the front there that'll

07:12 hold the phone as well.

07:14 But, what about bottles? So, they easily fit into there. You've got nice little teeth to

07:19 hold them into place and then inside the door you've got storage for a bottle, plus odds

07:23 it ends near the driver's foot. You have a little coin tray and then you have this centre

07:28 console that's movable, by the way, so you can go forwards and backwards and then it's

07:32 pretty deep. You can actually fit a fair bit of stuff in there, which is great.

07:35 Over here, the glove box. That's pretty reasonably sized too. There's lots of room in there and

07:40 then overhead you have sunglass storage as well.

07:43 Now, what about comfort? Probably what I like the most about this Mazda 3, the seats are

07:47 so damn comfortable. They hug you in nicely and they're really soft and plush. They just

07:52 feel great. So, big tick for the seats. These are electrically adjustable, but only for

07:57 the driver. You do get memory. It's just a shame that with the passenger side you have

08:01 to manually adjust the seat.

08:02 Now, what about the reach of all the controls? All super easy to do from here and all within

08:07 a logical location. I can sort of take my eyes off the road to quickly increase the

08:11 temperature if I need to. The steering wheel sits nicely in the hand too and then you've

08:15 got paddle shifters located behind there.

08:17 Righto, let's talk back seat. Not much room if I'm honest. My knees are literally digging

08:24 into that seat. Keep in mind I do have this seat quite far back, but there is barely any

08:29 leg room there. Toe room is virtually non-existent either. I can barely move my toes there. So,

08:34 yeah, it's a really cramped space and it's a bit tricky to see out of the car. That rising

08:37 belt line kind of prevents you from getting vision outside. So, yeah, I feel a little

08:42 claustrophobic in here.

08:44 And headroom, incredibly bad. So, yeah, this isn't a space that you really want your friends

08:49 to be in the back on if they are taller. I guess it's fine for kids and stuff, but for

08:52 adults this isn't really that decent a space to be seated.

08:56 Centre armrest, decent. Cup holders with little rubber bits to hold the bottle in and then

09:02 you can also fit that inside the door with a bit of space either side.

09:06 Isofix points on the two outboard seats. You've got mat pockets in, sorry, mat pocket just

09:11 in the passenger seat. There's none on the driver's side. You've got air vents here as

09:14 well, but no USB charging.

09:17 So this swoopy hatch design may look good, but unfortunately it eats into the boot space.

09:21 So you have 295 litres of cargo space available, which is less than the outgoing Mazda 3. A

09:27 little bit disappointing, but I'll walk you through what it looks like and how our luggage

09:30 fits in. So beneath the cargo floor you have a space saver spare tyre plus a subwoofer

09:35 and all your tyre jacks and all that sort of stuff. You have a little LED light tucked

09:40 into there and then your top tether points. I'll show you how this comes off. It's a pretty

09:44 straightforward process. That sort of lobs under there. Pop our luggage in.

09:50 Now the interesting thing here is I don't think this will fit if we go that way. So

09:55 you've got to go around that way. Now if you do want to drop the seats it is a case of

10:00 pushing these levers down and then the seats disappear. And the other problem with that

10:05 is that they don't disappear if your front seats are pushed back. So you have to then

10:10 manually go and move them forward and then push the seats down.

10:13 Okay, before we start driving, let me run you through SkyActiv-X and what it actually

10:19 means. This bit's a little bit technical, so if you're not interested in listening to

10:22 all that sort of stuff, you can skip ahead. But if you want to know how the process works,

10:26 stay right where you are. Mazda kind of coins this car as a hybrid, but it's not a traditional

10:30 hybrid like a Corolla hybrid which can run entirely switched off. This is a mild hybrid

10:35 system. So a mild hybrid system, you may have heard us talk about that before, and if you

10:39 want a more detailed explanation of what that means, click up here to have a look at our

10:42 Mercedes-Benz GLE review.

10:45 The Mazda uses a 24-volt mild hybrid system with a motor generator. This allows the car

10:50 to start much smoother than it would with a standard starter motor. And that means when

10:54 it is rolling to a stop it switches off earlier at around 22 kilometres an hour, and then

10:58 when it restarts you barely notice that it's kicking back on. And this is a 24-volt system,

11:03 not a 48-volt system. And it's also used to charge a small battery that sits between the

11:07 wheel arches.

11:08 But the engine under the bonnet is the bit that's unique to Mazda. It's called Spark

11:12 Controlled Compression Ignition, and it blends the benefits of a diesel engine with a petrol

11:17 engine. So how does it all work? So these overlays on the screen will help explain it

11:21 a little bit better, but the basis of it is that during the intake you get a lean air

11:25 fuel mixture, so that is a whole lot more air coming into the chamber instead of a mixture

11:30 of air and fuel.

11:31 Then during the compression stroke you get atomised fuel pumped into the chamber at 700

11:36 bar. Now once that ignites using that spark plug it delivers a high energy charge, and

11:42 that of course means that you're able to push the piston head down harder and faster, and

11:46 that means you're generating more power and torque during that expansion process.

11:51 So how does that relate to a diesel engine? Well a diesel engine works with a similar

11:54 process. They don't actually use a spark plug in a diesel engine, it's basically a compression

11:59 process that self-ignites. So what they've been able to do here is simulate that high

12:04 lean compression process in a diesel, except with the atomised fuel you can spark it and

12:09 that creates that rapid expansion. So that all works at the lower end of the rev band.

12:14 As the rev band increases the engine's able to switch back to a standard internal combustion

12:18 mode that you'd find in any other car. So you're filling that small gap that a diesel

12:22 engine works well at, which is low RPM, and then when you get to the high RPMs you just

12:26 go back to running it as a regular engine. That then means you get an air/fuel mixture

12:30 of 15 to 1 here in the Skyactiv-X, which compares to around 13 to 1 in a regular internal combustion

12:36 Mazda engine, that of course means less fuel in the long run.

12:42 So we've hit the road in the Skyactiv-X Mazda3. Under the bonnet it's a 2.0-litre naturally

12:47 aspirated petrol engine. It makes 132 kilowatts of power, 224 newton metres of torque, and

12:54 that's in comparison to a 2.5-litre you'll find in the Astina if you don't option this

13:00 engine. It is worth noting as well that that 224 newton metres of torque occurs at 3,000

13:06 RPM, so it's not quite as low in the rev band as you'd find with a turbocharged car, but

13:12 it is lower than you'd find with a naturally aspirated engine regularly. It's then mated

13:16 to a six-speed automatic transmission, and that's just a regular transmission, so no

13:21 dual-clutch business here, no CVT, it's just a regular torque converter. It's actually

13:25 a really pleasant transmission and it works well when it comes to its stop/start system,

13:29 so I'll show you how that works. You basically roll to a stop and when it gets to around

13:33 that 22 kilometre an hour mark, the engine kicks off and then you roll out of the brake

13:38 and then it starts again. It is entirely seamless, you can barely feel it working, and that's

13:43 what I love about these mild hybrid systems, they've taken that shunt out of a regular

13:47 stop/start system that everyone just switched off because it was too uncomfortable to use,

13:52 whereas this is completely imperceptible. So how do you know that this is all active?

13:56 Well, you have this display here that tells you when the compression ignition system is

14:00 running and it also tells you the charge level of the onboard battery and when I-stop is

14:05 ready, and also which parts of your car are contributing to I-stop not being ready, such

14:10 as air conditioning or the battery state. Now this is front-wheel drive here in the

14:14 Mazda 3. There are all-wheel drive versions of the Mazda 3 available in other markets,

14:18 but we are front-wheel drive only. If you do want this engine with an all-wheel drive

14:22 drivetrain, it is coming in the CX-30, the same engine set-up, but it will be all-wheel

14:27 drive instead. Now let's talk the all-important fuel economy. Mazda claims 5.5 litres per

14:34 100 kilometres with the SkyActiv-X version of the Mazda 3. If you compare it to the G25,

14:40 the 2.5 litre version of this exact same car, that's at 6.5 litres. So it's almost 20% fuel

14:47 economy gain with using this, but if we jump over here, we're currently at 9.1 litres per

14:54 100 kilometres. So it's not actually that good. You don't really see the benefits here.

14:59 When we tested the Corolla Hybrid, that is actually pretty much as claimed. It sits around

15:03 that 5.5 litres per 100 kilometres mark. This is nowhere near that claim. It's almost double

15:08 what it says on the box. So it really isn't that impressive when it is put to the test

15:13 and put through regular driving conditions. Now what about engine noise? We're going up

15:16 a hill here, 3,000 rpm, it's holding the gear. There is a fair bit of noise coming into the

15:21 cabin, and I don't know whether it's that technology that simply is a little bit noisier

15:26 when it reaches the high end of the rev band there, but there is a fair bit infiltrating

15:29 into the car. I mean, it's not such a bad thing. It's not an unpleasant noise like a

15:33 diesel, but it is still quite noticeable when you get stuck into it. Now the only downside

15:37 to all of this, in addition to the fuel economy not being that flash, is that you require

15:42 95-rong premium unleaded all the time. You won't be able to stick 91 into this. And on

15:47 top of that, this carries about 60 kilograms extra weight on top of the G25 to facilitate

15:52 all of that Skyactiv-X mild hybrid technology. Now what about acceleration? We'll pop it

15:57 into sport mode here. It sort of dives back through the gears. Give it a punch. Look,

16:04 it feels reasonable. It's fairly thrashy once you get stuck into it. Look, it doesn't sort

16:10 of pull your face off, but it doesn't feel any slower than the G25, which is the 2.5-litre

16:14 version, which I guess is to be expected. But it's not quite as sort of pushy as I thought

16:21 it would be. Like in the Corolla Hybrid, for example, you can feel when you're getting

16:24 the assistance with the hybrid components, whereas here, if I'm looking at this display

16:28 when I get stuck into it, it doesn't really feel like there's all that much assistance

16:33 coming from that lithium-ion battery pack. And like I said, it's not bad, it's just not

16:38 as quick as I thought it was going to be. Now in terms of 0-100, this is what it looks

16:43 like. Now with that extra weight, has it lost anything in terms of handling dynamics? Not

16:59 really. It feels fairly sprightly as we go through a few corners here. It sits nice and

17:04 flat. You don't really feel that extra weight of all the hybrid components, so that's a

17:09 big positive that you're not going to lose out on any of that inherent sportiness you

17:13 always find in a Mazda 3. Steering feel is good, but what I'm not loving here is brake

17:17 pedal feel. When you get onto the brake pedal, it is extremely firm. You really have to get

17:22 your foot stuck into it. I mean, it's not like it doesn't have the braking performance,

17:27 it's just that perception of feel. It kind of feels like there's no more travel left

17:30 in it when you go to rest your foot on the brake. You really have to get stuck into it

17:34 for anything to happen. What about ride comfort? It is a really pleasant place to be. It doesn't

17:39 feel like there's much of a difference over the regular Mazda 3s, and that's a good thing

17:43 because they've absolutely nailed the ability to have a nice-looking 18-inch alloy wheel

17:46 with a fairly low-profile tyre, and then a ride that is just as nice as any other car

17:51 in this segment, if not better. Keep in mind that this car uses a torsion beam at the rear.

17:56 At this price point, a lot of its competitors, such as the Hyundai i30, use an independent

18:01 rear suspension setup. Yes, I know that's a good way to save money, but at the end of

18:06 the day, it doesn't really make that much of a difference. The average punter isn't

18:09 going to notice that this is a torsion beam setup as opposed to an independent rear suspension

18:14 setup. Now, what about visibility? Visibility out the front is fine. Out the sides, it's

18:18 good. You get that blind spot monitoring system. The wing mirrors are fairly big as well. Visibility

18:22 out the back is pretty poor. It's quite a narrow envelope there, so it's pretty tricky

18:27 to see out the rear of the car. One thing we are noticing here is road noise. On course

18:31 chip surfaces, there is a fair bit of tyre noise coming into the cabin. Mazda has improved

18:36 drastically over the outgoing generation of the Mazda 3 in terms of noise that infiltrates

18:41 the cabin, but I think there's probably still a little bit of work to be done.

18:44 OK, Skyactiv-X technology. Is it the revolution that Mazda says it is? Well, it kind of is.

18:49 It's actually really cool technology, and the way they've been able to pioneer this

18:53 and make this car much, much smoother is really cool, but it comes at a price premium. Three

18:58 grand over the 2.5-litre version of this car without the Skyactiv-X tech is a big step

19:03 forward, especially when you're not seeing such a big reduction in fuel economy. If you

19:08 were super serious about wanting to save the planet, I think the Toyota Corolla Hybrid

19:11 is a far better option. It uses less fuel and it costs much less as well. So look, this

19:16 will be bought by early adopters and people that want to be part of this pioneering tech,

19:20 but I don't know if it'll take off as much as Mazda says it will. Let me know in the

19:24 comments below what you think and whether you think Mazda's done the right thing with

19:27 this instead of going for a proper hybrid car.

19:30 If you did find this review useful, make sure you hit the like button and follow it up with

19:33 the subscribe and press the bell icon. That's going to tell you every single time we drive

19:36 something different, but until next time, take it easy.

19:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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