Mazda Seeking Billion-Dollar Capital Boost To Help Fund Green Initiatives
In a bid to catch-up to other major players in the auto industry's green sweepstakes, Mazda "Zoom-Zoom" Motor Corp. say is is planning to raise as much as $1.1 billion in new capital with much of it earmarked for development of hybrids and other fuel-efficient technologies.
The Japanese automaker does have a hybrid in the market, the slow-selling Tribute hybrid SUV, but it is simply a re-badged version of Ford's escape hybrid.
Now that Ford no longer owns controlling interest in Mazda, that kind of cross-corporate product and technology sharing is likely to stop.
So Mazda needs its own fuel efficiency lineup, and fast.
The company already has pledged to improve its overall fleet fuel economy by 30 percent by 2015, but most of that is to come from improvements to its internal combustion engines.
The first such improved engines, called the SKY-G (for gasoline) and SKY-D (for diesel) were announced last week and will be shown at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show later this month.
A Mazda hybrid system is needed though to help the automaker remain competitive as hybrids catch on in Japan, the U.S. - its largest market - and, more gradually, in Europe.
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- John O'Dell October 5, 2009, 11:16 AM
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- Mazda Hybrids
If they bring diesel to the US, that would be a step in the right direction.