Spinning in Circles: Mazda's Rotary Ambitions Still Very Much Alive
It seems like we get a new update about Mazda’s plan for the rotary engine every few months. The automaker kept tinkering with the technology after the RX-8’s demise, but efficiency mandates left the high-revving Wankel on the sidelines, prohibiting the introduction of a true successor to the rotary coupe. Yet the motor hung around as the company’s likely solution for hybrid cars, recharging the battery while electric propulsion takes care of forward momentum.
While that makes the probability of an RX-9 sound rather bleak, the company doesn’t want anyone to give up hope. Mazda still desires such a vehicle and the company’s European vice president of communications, Wojciech Halarewicz, has basically said it will be a done deal if they can find enough money in the budget for a flagship sports car.
“We know that electric cars will be important in 2020 to 2025, but also that EVs are not the answer for everything,” Halarewicz told Piston Heads. “Combustion engines will still play a part, and if you asked me if I want a rotary sports car at the top of the range, I’d say yes I’d love to have one. Many of my colleagues would too. So it’s a matter of keeping the sales growth going to make sure we can do one in the future.”
That’s not exactly a definitive promise, but with Mazda having spent good money to advance rotary technology, primarily in the service of range extension and prospective hydrogen applications, it would be silly to presume they haven’t learned a few tricks along the way. Maybe there’s already an upsized rotary waiting in a warehouse somewhere, ready for action.
Mitsuo Hitomi, Mazda’s head of engine development, has already hyped the rotary’s potential as a gasoline-driven energy supplement for EVs. While it’s not the most efficient design, it can be made dead silent when operated at a constant speed. Last year, Hitomi said Mazda was working hard to make the setup work as an effective range extender. He noted that the automaker would continue developing a full-sized rotary even if it failed in that role.
Around the same time, Mazda admitted it wanted another RX model, but said it had to be careful. “We have twice had bad experience for rotary engines for our financial situation, therefore we have to carefully consider and carefully decide how to do that,” explained Kiyoshi Fujiwara, Mazda’s head of research and development. “Some of the stakeholders and shareholders cannot allow it at this moment. If we can get more robust business structure, I can explain it, I can get approval. If it’s needed.”
None of this would be noteworthy if we didn’t keep hearing everyone at Mazda saying the exact same thing. Once Mazda has a little extra cash to burn, it can build the RX-9 and its electric push will be a major deciding factor. Mazda’s first EV in scheduled to launch in 2020, thanks to help from Toyota, and more models are to follow. Meanwhile, brand sales have remained robust within Europe and North America, slipping ever so slightly (globally) in 2017 and coming back relatively strong for the first half of 2018.
We’ll have to see how Mazda’s EV sales pan out before we allow ourselves to become preoccupied with the concept of rotary-powered performance model. However, the automaker made patience a difficult virtue to maintain with 2015’s RX-Vision Concept. Mazda’s designs are frequently incredibly sexy and the hypothetical RX-9 remains one of the best-looking automobiles we’ve ever seen.
[Images: Mazda]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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I'm old enough to remember when the turbine engine failed as a replacement for the ICE. It turned out the turbo was better suited as a forced induction add-on to the ICE, not a replacement for it. I'm still waiting for a smart engineer to realize the CVT should be a component of a transmission too, and not the transmission itself, maybe to reduce losses in shifting by replacing the clutch. Could it be that Wankel's idea has a better future as another component of the ICE, and not a replacement? How about applying it to the valve train instead of the combustion chamber?
"Mitsuo Hitomi, Mazda’s head of engine development, has already hyped the rotary’s potential as a gasoline-driven energy supplement for EVs. While it’s not the most efficient design, it can be made dead silent when operated at a constant speed." When operated at a constant speed, most of the rotary's deficiencies can be designed away. The piston engine is great for dynamic engine speeds, but rotarys and turbines are great at constant speeds. That would also take away any aspect of fun from a rotary engine. They are incredible motors with dynamic engine speeds, but that just comes with bad emissions and mileage. I think a rotary hybrid would be near soulless compared to an RX-7, but it's a practical application of rotary technology. I'm interested.