Mazda announced a new start-stop system that promises at least a 10% improvement in efficiency without the need for an electric motor, Autoblog reports. Most systems need the electric motor to power the regular engine's start-up process; Mazda's system uses just direct injection and combustion to restart the car.

Here's how it works: the Smart Idle Stop System (SISS) stops the pistons in an optimal position for restarting the engine later, the report said. Then it injects fuel into the cylinders before the engine begins to rotate, "letting the power of combustion turn the engine over to start" in just 0.35 seconds, which is about half the time it takes the electric motor-based start-stop systems to work. Mazda's system requires an automatic transmission, however. No word yet on which models will get the system, or whether Mazda even plans to bring it stateside.