Mazda Still On Track to Bring Diesel Four-Cylinder to the U.S. in 2012

Just as Mazda took the wraps off of the face-lifted Mazda 3 with its new SKYACTIV four-cylinder gasoline engine, the company quietly reconfirmed that it will bring a diesel engine to the U.S. market in 18 months. The diesel is a member of the same family as the gas mill, and will probably arrive here in 2.2-liter form. When we tried this engine in a Mazda 6 last year, the company�s engineers were estimating fuel economy for that (rather large) car would be over 30 mpg city/40 highway. What�s especially impressive about the powerplant is that it doesn�t require any urea injection to meet U.S. emissions standards, unlike many current diesels from the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.
Separately, we�ve learned that the Mazda 6 will not receive any changes in the next few years�certainly none before the diesel engine arrives here�and this leads us to conclude that the big sedan won�t be the first recipient of the diesel four. With that in mind, SUVs like the CX-7 and upcoming CX-5 seem like good candidates.