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Recharge Wrap-up: Mazda, Toyota earn environmental awards

Electric mobility nonprofit Drive Oregon has launched a campaign to invite the electric car industry to perform testing in the state. The campaign tells companies to, "Test Drive the Future in the Living Lab," citing Oregon's density of EV owners and charging infrastructure, varied terrain and climate, funding opportunities, and the state's technological reputation as the "Silicon Forest." Plus, as Drive Oregon Executive Director Jeff Allen, points out, "if you really screw things up here, it doesn't make as much noise as it would in California." Already, Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans for an Innovation Incubator in Oregon. Read more at Green Car Reports. Mazda's new paint system has won the Prime Minister's Award in the category of Manufacturing and Production Process at the 6th Monodzukuri Nippon Grand Award ceremony. Mazda's Aqua-tech paint system significantly reduces emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and CO2. The Aqua-tech system uses a water-based color basecoat and a urethane clear coat to reduce VOC emissions by 57 percent. It consolidates the painting process and reduces energy in paint-booth air-conditioning and flash-off processes to reduce energy consumption. It also allows Mazda to create such colors as Soul Red, which looks quite nice on the MX-5 Miata. Read more at Green Car Congress, and learn all about the Aqua-tech paint process from Mazda. The Toyota Mirai has received a 2015 Environmental Award from Austrian automobile club ARBO. The hydrogen fuel cell car took the prize in the category of Current Innovative Environmental Technologies. "At Toyota, we believe that various technologies will co-exist, ranging from EVs to hybrids to the most innovative of all, the fuel cell car," says Gerald Killmann, Vice President R&D of Toyota Motor Europe, in a comment thanking ARBO. "Mirai is a core component of Toyota's vision for a sustainable mobility society, one that allows us all to move freely in comfort and safety in an environmentally friendly, sustainable manner." Read more in the press release below. Vienna, Austria- November 5th - The Austrian automobile club ARBO* (Auto-Motor und Radfahrerverbund Osterreiche) has awarded the Toyota Mirai with the "2015 Environmental Award". This Award was received during a gala ceremony held yesterday in Vienna, where the Toyota Mirai was awarded in the category of "Current Innovative Environmental Technologies" . The jury consisted of ARBO automotive experts.

Did Mazda designer Derek Jenkins leave to head up a 'Stealth Project?'

Not long after Derek Jenkins officially gave the 2016 MX-5 Miata to the buying world, he's left the Mazda building. Jalopnik reported that the head of design for Mazda North America changed the current job description on his LinkedIn profile to "Stealth Project." Mazda backed up the discovery with this reply to Jalop's inquiry: Derek left Mazda last Friday. He left on great terms in order to work on a new endeavor. We wish him the best of luck. He will be missed, but we are sure that he will do great things in the next chapter of his career. That "last Friday" would be July 17. Emphasizing the "stealth" bit in his new position, as far as we can tell, Jenkins still hasn't publicly answered any question about what he's doing. Every automaker has secrets, but traditional automakers usually make a hubbub about hiring big-name designers, especially one with Jenkins' resume. For his new employer to go all Ghost Recon with all information, well that's the kind of mystery this summer needs. The obvious culprit would be a certain fruit-named company in a certain Cupertino, CA office park. If that ends up being the case, Jenkins would be the second chief designer at Mazda NA to go electric: he replaced Franz von Holzhausen in the position after von Holzhausen went to Tesla. Various other Apple Project Titan hires have made the news, though. For all we know, Jenkins' project might not be automotive. So let's just go ahead and cue the speculation. We're looking forward to whatever he's got coming, and to whoever gets nominated to keep the full head of Zoom-Zoom going at Mazda NA.

Mazda3 sales off to rocky start despite massive critical acclaim

Like just about every other auto publication we've seen, we loved the way the Mazda3 drove when we reviewed it a few months ago, but those glowing reviews apparently aren't helping its sales. The new compact may be falling victim to a sales war between the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, with the newcomer getting squeezed out by those with more established names and bigger marketing budgets.
According to Automotive News, Mazda3 sales have fallen every month since last August, and its sales are down 27 percent in the first two months of 2014. It certainly isn't helping that the entire compact segment is down five percent this year as well.
The biggest problem for the new model seems to be its price compared to rivals. Mazda is not offering the incentives that are on the hood of competitors. With the previous generation, the company offered more than $2,700 on the hood to move them out, but the current model only carries about $1,233 in markdowns, according to AN.