Earlier today, we reported that Mazda was putting their plans to revive the rotary engine on hold. Responding to that, the Japanese carmaker has countered, and said that everything is going according to plan.
Apparently, the media reports that point to Mazda suspending work on the rotary engine is down to a misunderstanding.
Mazda explains that in 2018, when they first announced their Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 plan, they broadly used the term “range extender” to include Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), and as a range extender for Electric Vehicles (EVs).
In all three cases, the rotary engine is used as a generator, and not directly responsible for tractive force. The only difference would be how they combine battery capacity, generator, and fuel tank size.
Since then, Mazda’s definition for each approach to electrification has become more specific in order to make it aligned and relevant to terms already used in the market. PHEV and HEV, which used to be included in their old definition of “range extender” now stand separate. Meanwhile, range extender now only applies to an actual range extender which uses a small combustion engine to charge the onboard battery.
With that, Mazda reiterates that there’s no change made to their electrification plan. If that is the case, expect it to arrive sometime in 2022 under the hood of the MX-30.
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