New Mazda3 will land in LA, likely packing mild hybrid tech

mazda3-laas-teaser — Variety is the spice of life, unless you're at my house, where it's cumin.
Mazda

The Mazda3 is one of our favorite compact cars, and now we have a whole new version to get excited about.

Mazda announced on Thursday that the all-new Mazda3 will make its debut at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, the press days for which kick off the week after Thanksgiving. The teaser offers more than the first one did, clearly showing the full rear end of the new Mazda3 hatchback, in addition to the silhouette of the sedan behind it.

In addition to its redesigned body, the new Mazda3 is slated to pack the latest and greatest engine tech Mazda has to offer. It will wield Mazda's new Skyactiv-X engine, which compresses gasoline to ignite like diesel fuel. We took an early version of the engine for a spin earlier this year and walked away impressed, even though it was still being tweaked.

That's not all, though. According to a tweet from Hans Greimel, an editor for Automotive News, Mazda's CEO said that the new Skyactiv-X engine will be mated to a mild hybrid system, and that it will debut on this new Mazda3. So not only will consumers get a new engine, they'll get it as part of a hybrid system.

Mild hybrids are, essentially, traditional internal-combustion vehicles with more powerful electrical systems. Mild hybrids can run their stop-start systems for longer and possibly shut off the engine at speed, all in the name of increased efficiency. We don't know much about Mazda's new mild hybrid system yet, but we'll know more once we land in LA and take a look at the new Mazda3 in person.