As soon as it comes to Mazda bringing back rotary power, fans have been catching at the straws and considering in anything liking the slightest aroma of a rumour from “unnamed sources closest to Mazda.” But now, we have it from a named company executive.
Speaking to Australia’s Wheels Magazine, Mazda’s Technical Research Centre and Integrated Control System Development boss, Mitsuo Hitomi, made known that the automaker is working on a new rotary engine. Hitomi said progress of the rotary has focused on fixing some of the well-known inadequacy of the engine, such as apex seal wear and oil consumption. He also recognized that it isn’t possible to achieve the same emissions levels as a conventional engine in a rotary.
“We cannot improve the rotary engine to the current conventional engine emissions,” he further added. “We are investigating various kinds of emission systems to ensure ideal conditions.”
This focal point on fuel burn efficiency was afterwards repeated by Mazda’s head of product strategy, Hidetoshi Kudo, who told Wheels the automaker was looking at alternative ignition technologies to remedy the problem.
“We’re still continuing development of the next-generation rotary engine,” he said. “We cannot improve the rotary engine to the current conventional engine emissions,” and that’s partially why he says the rotary will likely be teamed to an electric motor and batteries, for emissions reasons.It’s also worth considering that at the very same event the rotary was totally absent from Mazda’s so-called Zoom Zoom 2030 road map. It’s probable not even Mazda knows if a new rotary is possible.
In an effort to make the rotary cleaner and more efficient, Mazda is exploring the laser and plasma ignition to help construct a cleaner burn. In spite of the engine’s shortcomings, Hitomi says “rotary is very important to Mazda.” We hope they make it work.
“As you know, flame propagation is an issue in rotary engines. We are looking at laser ignition and plasma ignition, but laser is very expensive,” explained Kudo.
Kudo also believed rotary engines were “very important” to Mazda before pointing out that 2020 is the automaker’s 100th anniversary.
On the Basis of these announcements, it appears probable that a rotary-engined Mazda could arrive around that time to mark the automaker’s centenary year. We’ve payed attention to rumors that Mazda could be getting ready to show an early draft of a so-called ‘RX-9’ sports car at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show in October, but we stay unconvinced such a product will be shown so soon.
Regardless of when the next rotary-engine Mazda reaches its destination, we can in any case take comfort in the fact that it is certainly happening. Who says the combustion engine is on its way out?
