"Mazda announces breakthrough in long-coveted engine technology" -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-strategy-idUSKBN1AO0E7 Basically Mazda designed a new engine which is 20%-30% more efficient than our current combustion engine.
Ignites fuel by compression instead of spark plugs, and as fuel economic as diesel engines without the release of nitrogen oxide and sooty particles.
Plan is to get it rolled out by 2019, with it's new electric car line and autonomous vehicles by 2025.
This comes on the news that Japan's GS Yuasa Corp is going to start producing lithium batteries that will double the range of electric cars.