Confirmed: Mazda rotary to return next year

Mazda Australia has confirmed it plans to release the Mazda MX-30 plug-in rotary range-extender EV by around August 2022.

The extended-range electric SUV will follow the launch last month of the mild-hybrid Mazda MX-30 M Hybrid, as well as the battery-powered Mazda MX-30 Electric that arrives in August 2021.

Mazda Australia marketing director Alastair Doak said the MX-30 ‘REX’ will be unique in the market – not just courtesy of its rotary engine/generator but following the axing of the BMW i3 range-extender.

“We’re very much on track to get it next year and it’s very much our desire and our plan to have it in the line-up,” Doak told carsales following today’s release of MX-30 Electric pricing.

“That’s our intention. We haven’t got 100 per cent absolute paperwork to say it’s happening but that’s not unusual and our expectation is we’ll be part of that program and get the car. That’s the proposition we’re working on and what we want.

“We still haven’t got a locked in job one [production date] but the global announcement said Q1 [production] next year and I believe it remains then, so hopefully by August next year we’d be hopeful that we’d be getting rotary range-extender as well.”

Doak would not be drawn on market positioning for the Mazda MX-30 range-extender at this stage, but it’s likely to be priced even higher than the all-electric MX-30 EV ($65,490 plus on-road costs).

“We’ve got our thoughts but it’s too early to be talking about that,” he said. “A lot of things can happen between now and then.”

Mazda’s local marketing chief said the Japanese car-maker’s second plug-in MX-30 derivative was ideally suited to the Australian landscape thanks to its extended range.

“It makes a lot of sense for Australia with the big distances that we have,” he said.

“It runs on EV power all the time but you can run Monday to Friday around town without the range-extender cutting in, and then if you want to head to Lorne or Adelaide on the weekend you can.

“So yes it does give that flexibility and so it’s perfectly suited to Australia.”

While the pure-electric version of the Mazda MX-30 will offer a real-world (WLTP) driving range of 200km, the range-extender version should offer significantly greater range, although no specs have yet been announced.

Prototype versions of the Wankel-engined MX-30 began testing in Japan in January and the production model will be released in Japan and Europe in the first half of 2022.

Priced from $33,990 plus ORCs and available in three variants, the Mazda MX-30 M Hybrid became Mazda Australia’s first electrified vehicle in April and is expected to attract about 200 buyers a month.

It is powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine (114kW/200Nm) equipped with a 48-volt mild-hybrid electrical system, a small lithium-ion battery and a 5.1kW electric motor.

The Mazda MX-30 Electric, which costs almost twice the mild-hybrid’s base price, swaps that powertrain for a small electric motor (107kW/271Nm) powered by a similarly small 35.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack under the floor.

No sales forecast has been announced ahead of the EV’s official launch in mid-June.

The Mazda MX-30 RE, as it could be called, will add a small rear-mounted reciprocating engine-generator to recharge the battery and extend its range, making it the first rotary-powered Mazda since the RX-8 sports car was discontinued in 2012.

All three Mazda MX-30 models are front-wheel drive and fitted with a single-speed automatic transmission.

Related: Mazda MX-30 Electric now on sale
Related: Mazda MX-30 M Hybrid 2021 Review
Related: Mazda rotary engine set to return to Oz