Mazda is apparently planning to introduce something radical under the hood of the to-be redesigned, next-generation Mazda3 compact.

According to Australian auto news outlet Motoring, the 2019 Mazda3 will bring with it an industry-first, "revolutionary," homogeneous charge compression ignition, or HCCI for short. Basically, it eschews spark plugs for a theoretically more efficient system that pushes fuel into a high-pressure combustion chamber. Echoing how diesel engines work, this is set to be the first petrol engine in a commercial, production car to use the compression-based ignition system.

Mazda's HCCI-enabled Skyactiv II engines will reportedly still use conventional spark plugs at low RPMs, but switch to the newfangled compression method at higher revs, according to Motoring. The Japanese automaker is aiming for a 30 percent increase in fuel efficiency thanks to HCCI.