A report from Australia’s GoAuto suggests it’s likely the next iteration of Mazda‘s big CX-9 crossover will ditch its current V6 in favour of a turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

If Ford still had a controlling interest in Mazda, that affiliation would have made the American brand’s EcoBoost motors a shoo-in for the CX-9, which shares some DNA with the original Ford Edge. GoAuto suggests a 2.5L turbo four is in the works, but if that’s the case, we can only guess at its origins: Ford uses a 2.3L EcoBoost four-cylinder in its upscale Lincoln line, its 285 hp/305 lb-ft of torque bettering the output of the CX-9’s 3.7L V6 by a useful margin. The new 2.7L EcoBoost V6 would be a good fit with Mazda’s sport-oriented tendencies with its 315 hp and 350 lb-ft. The current tenuous link between Ford and Mazda might allow for some kind of technology exchange between the two brands, but Mazda’s recent focus on its own SkyActiv tech might mean it’ll want to continue to go it alone.

It’s likely our version of the CX-9 would come with the same powertrain that goes into the Australian model: Mazda says Australia is the second only to the U.S. in CX-9 sales, and that that was a factor in giving its Australian operation input into the design and motivation for the next-gen model.

Whatever Mazda does with its largest model, we don’t expect it to learn much about it before next year.

Mazda CX-9

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