Mazda to revive rotary as shoebox-sized range-extender

Mazda is developing an all-new pure-electric vehicle that will go on sale in 2019 featuring the option of a rotary-powered range-extender.

Mazda Europe's VP for sales Martijn Brink told ZerAuto.nl that an updated version of the Wankel engine is being re-packaged to be the size of a shoebox so that it can be mounted low in the vehicle. He said it will be so smooth and vibration free that most drivers will not notice when it kicks in and starts generating electricity to charge the batteries.

Mazda has been working on a rotary range-extender for some years now, even publicly demonstrating its effectiveness on a Mazda 2 concept back in 2015.

Confirming the Japanese car-maker would launch its first pure-electric vehicle in 2019, Brink told the Dutch car website that the new car would come with the small rotary range-extender as an option to address fears over range anxiety.

Featuring a single rotor, the small rotary engine will be naturally aspirated and run at a constant rpm, acting purely as a generator with no connection to the wheels.

The return to rotary production will mark a seven-year hiatus for Mazda following the end of RX-8 production back in 2012.

Despite the launch of a pure-electric car, Brink reiterated Mazda's belief that the internal combustion engine still has a future, the with the European sales boss predicting that in 15 to 25 years it will continue to power cars.

Brink says that engineers are still aiming to increase thermal efficiency of combustion engines to around 56 per cent – the holy grail of engineering where well-to-wheel emissions begin matching a pure-electric car.

Last year the Japanese manufacturer celebrated 50 years of the Mazda rotary since the first rotary-powered 1967 Cosmo Sport 110S went on sale.