Mazda boosts mobile carbon capture 10x in race test, targets carbon negative cars by 2035

Mazda successfully demonstrated its onboard carbon capture system during the Super Taikyu Fuji 24 hour race, capturing and storing 804 grams of CO2. That is a 9.6 times improvement over its November 2025 test and the first time the company completed the full capture, desorption, and storage process on a moving vehicle. The system uses zeolite to adsorb CO2 from exhaust, then heat from the exhaust releases the gas for compression into an onboard tank. The car ran on hydrotreated vegetable oil, a carbon neutral fuel already used in Europe. Mazda says the combination temporarily exceeded its CO2 recovery target for production vehicles, showing potential for carbon negative operation. Mazda plans to optimize the system for short term carbon negative performance in a November 2026 race and aims to bring the technology to production vehicles by 2035. The approach is one pathway alongside low carbon fuels and efficiency improvements to cut transportation emissions.