The i-stop system is Mazda's term for the stop-start system - part of its new Sky engines - that automatically shuts down the engine when the car is stationary.
Mazda Australia national marketing manager Alastair Doak has a Mazda3 with a two-litre direct-injection vehicle idle-stop equipped engine here for testing using local fuel under local weather conditions.
"It's not so much hot weather testing, there's some engineering testing but also giving the local Mazda people a chance to have a look at it and get comfortable with the system," he says.
The system will keep running if things like the air conditioning requires but the system's real-world fuel savings are significant.
"It does make a difference in terms of the engine's performance in the ADR fuel test, but in the real-world the savings are significant. "i-stop is just one of the many improvements that the new SKYACTIV technologies will offer customers as Mazda strives to improve global average fuel economy by 30 percent by 2015," he says.
The system, already in use by Audi, BMW and Mini models in Australia, aims to reduce fuel use and emission during metropolitan driving where there's considerable time spent sitting at traffic lights.
Even high-performance brand Porsche has with similar technology in place on some cars sold in Australia, having put it on the Panamera.
Mazda's system is on both petrol and diesel engines and the Japanese car maker is claiming its version is quicker to restart.
Mazda says its engine stop-start system doesn't stop until the pistons are positioned for a quick and smooth re-start. The system resumes when the driver lifts off the brake pedal to get underway again - fuel is injected into the cylinder and the start motor applies a small amount of torque to the crankshaft, all of which makes for a more refined and quicker star, says Mazda - the claim is 0.35 of a second restart, which the company says is half the time of the other stop-start systems.
The i-stop is part of the company's next-generation Sky Activ technologies Mazda is preparing to introduce on its cars here during 2011 (the new Mazda6 is due in late 2011), but Mazda is being coy about which models will be equipped with it.
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