Talk about a bold claim from Mazda->ke53, as the Japanese automaker has said its next Mazda2->ke2501 subcompact would get 70 miles per gallon, making it the most fuel-efficient gasoline car on the road.

The vehicle will go on sale in Japan next year and it will be the first vehicle to get Mazda’s new engine and transmission technology, called SKYACTIV. Mazda hopes that this new setup will improve fuel economy on its cars by 30 percent by 2015. The company hopes to introduce the new SKYACTIV system on all of its cars by 2016.

The company also plans on building hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and an electric vehicle, using their current technology, by 2015. Currently, Mazda has no hybrid system of their own, but we don’t doubt that they have the ability to develop one.

The current Mazda2 manages 29/35 miles per gallon city/highway, which is decent, but not good enough to compete with the new B- and C-segment vehicles.

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