Mazda sticks with rotary power

[Joey D]

The Autocar article says a range of over 400 miles. 400 miles total with a fuel capacity of 50 liters or 13.2 gallons averages to over 30 mpg. Not great but with an EV range of 50 miles most people won't have to turn the engine on at all, assuming they live in Murica and have a garage where they will charge overnight.

Not a clue where you guys are getting all these random numbers, the only article I see posted here in Autocar.

@Famine pointed out how the 9.7L/100km was derived.

Well... "said to" is one thing, but if the car has a 373-mile range (53 of which is the fully charged battery pack) and a 50-litre tank, that's 6.4 miles per litre, or 29mpg (imperial, not US). That converts to 9.7 litres/100km.

Any other value will be from the WLTP test which, with a fully charged battery as is the standard, will result in ludicrous values.

 

[Keef]

I would describe it as OK. Where I struggle with this is the Prius Prime exists. The Prius will do around 40 miles in EV mode which is less than the Mazda but still perfectly adequate for the 95% of driving thing. But then the Prius then gets damn near 60mpg in Hybrid mode and has 650 miles of total range and has 220hp and does 0-60 in 6 seconds and cost less. The new one also looks really good. PHEVs are just the jam...I wish more people knew it.

Oh you're right, the Prius is excellent. Toyota is also a massive corporation which can afford to develop excellent tech very quickly. Mazda doesn't work like that which is why they've had to rebrand as upmarket.

 

[05XR8]

Mazda Patent Shows Another Rotary Sports Car, This Time A PHEV With AWD

Even though the patent was originally applied for in June 2021, it was published in the United States last week.

www.motor1.com

 

[Griffith500]

I don't really have the patience to properly read patents these days, so I've possibly missed something important.

The article seemed to suggest that the battery module series / parallel configuration is swapped on the fly to provide a choice of two voltages. That is not desirable from a driving experience standpoint as it would be very difficult to control smoothly and safely. Also these things often already have voltage inverters for the induction motors, so it's not necessary.

In fact the patent states that half of the battery's modules contribute to the positive side of the inverter's output waveform and the other half contributes to the negative. Thus in effect you get double the voltage at the motor for a given DC voltage fed to the inverter. Although I would think that their claim of a weight advantage in the lower voltage DC connectivity and cabling is negligible in reality. The battery's weight is mostly a function of configuration and capacity, not total voltage.


Still, as noted previously a parallel hybrid is a great way to get a variable speed rotary engine back in a road car.

The permanent magnet motor presumably fills in the torque at the low end and the other two provide the torque vectoring and otherworldly punch that everyone has come to expect from EVs.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I've been hoping for this for nearly a decade now

 

[05XR8]

I guess this is interesting. From the generated translation I’m reading.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

With your encouragement, we are launching a rotary engine development group on 1 February to move closer to this dream.

Source.

I assume that there is already a RE development group at Mazda (I mean who else is working on them?) so this is a bit vague to me. However, the response to the Iconic SP was apparently so positive that Mazda must be slating it for production. I can only hope a rotary engine is part of that equation...I hope in the form of a PHEV that Mazda seems to be getting better at making...

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

From Mazda:

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) will accelerate its research and development of rotary engines (RE) that are adapted to the new era in its efforts to continue to deliver the joy of cars through solutions that are appropriate for the times toward the realization of carbon-neutral society.

The 'RE Development Group' has been reinstated in Powertrain Technology Development Department of Powertrain Development Division on February 1, 2024, preluding a sequel of the RE story. The new RE Development Group will continue to evolve RE used as generators, and will conduct research and development in areas such as regulatory compliance in major markets as well as the application of carbon-neutral fuels.

Electric Drive Unit of Mazda MX-30 e-SKYACTIV R-EV
Commenting on the move, Director, Senior Managing Executive Officer, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Ichiro Hirose said, "In Mazda's history, the rotary engine is a special symbol of our 'challenger spirit.' We are deeply grateful to all those who have supported RE to date, and are pleased to announce the rebirth of the organization that develops RE, the engine that has been loved by customers around the world. For the last six years, RE engineers have been part of the engine development organization where they engaged in the development of state-of-the-art internal combustion engine functions as well as the ultimate improvement in efficiency. Those engineers have broadened their perspective beyond the boundaries of engine systems, and have trained themselves to master the 'Model-Based Development,' which is one of Mazda's engineering strengths. This time, 36 engineers will gather in one group to make a breakthrough in the research and development of RE. In the age of electrification and in a carbon-neutral society, we promise to keep delivering attractive cars that excite customers with our 'challenger spirit.'"

The rotary engine is an engine with a unique structure that generates power by rotating a triangular rotor. Mazda was the first to install RE in the Cosmo Sport introduced in 1967, and for many years since then, Mazda has been working to improve performance in terms of output, exhaust-gas purification, fuel economy, and durability as the only automobile manufacturer to mass-produce rotary engines. In June 2023, the company resumed mass production of vehicles with rotary engines for the first time in approximately 11 years since the end of production of the Mazda RX-8 in 2012. Currently, the Mazda MX-30 e-SKYACTIV R-EV, the 12th model that mounts a rotary engine, has been introduced in Japan and Europe.

Mazda will continue to pursue the 'Joy of Driving' under its core value, “Human Centric”, and aim to deliver 'Joy of Living' by creating moving experiences in customers' daily lives.