Technology-laden Premacy

It's a first. No car company has previously thrown so many different means of powering a motor vehicle at the problem posed by diminishing fossil fuel supplies and a rapidly overheating planet.

Now, Mazda has. If you count petrol induction for its rotary engine, hydrogen internal combustion, plus the hybrid-drive system comprising an electric motor and lithium-ion-battery storage, Mazda has bundled together three distinct means of powering the company's new, experimental Premacy. Nor does that include permutations such as the electric motor assisting the rotary for performance motoring.

The car maker has been working for some time on hydrogen fuel for its rotary-engined RX-8 (more here). According to Mazda, the rotary engine is easier to adapt for hydrogen internal combustion than the conventional piston engine is. Rotary engines have not historically been especially economical, but the experimental Premacy has a range of up to 200km on hydrogen alone, thanks to the efforts of the hybrid-drive system. Combined with the electric motor of the hybrid-drive system, the Premacy is also 40 per cent more powerful than it would be, running on just internal combustion.

The government body in Japan that more or less equates to the Australian Department of Transport and Regional Services is the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). This department has now granted approval for Mazda to run the Premacy over public roads, testing the vehicle ahead of its commercial launch before the end of the 2008 Japanese fiscal year (around the first quarter of 2009).

Mazda will lease the vehicle to customers, once the testing is completed and production can commence. Both the hydrogen Premacy and the hydrogen RX-8 will be presented at the G8 summit in Japan next month.

"We are committed to improving the performance of our hydrogen rotary engine vehicles to help promote a more eco-friendly place for the automobile in society," says Akihiro Kashiwagi, the program manager in charge of hydrogen rotary engine development at Mazda.

"Getting permission from the transportation authorities in Japan to begin public road testing the Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid in time for the Hokkaido Toyako Summit is extremely significant, because the eyes of the world will be focused on Japan's environmental technologies. Going forward, we will continue to advance our development program and strive to start commercial leasing during this fiscal year."

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