Mazda to slot famed rotary engine in plug-in MX-30

TOKYO – Mazda confirmed that its trademark rotary engine will return this fiscal year in a plug-in hybrid version of the MX-30 subcompact crossover bound for the U.S.

The rollout makes good on a promise long in the making to resurrect the powerplant after retiring the technology with the discontinued RX-8 sports car in 2012.

Talk of deploying an updated rotary in the MX-30 has swirled since the vehicle debuted at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Mazda Motor Corp. toyed with using it in a range extender that would have gone on sale in the first half of the fiscal year started April 1.

But Mazda opted for a plug-in variant. That allows it to further reduce the size and cost of the battery, compared with a range extender. But the engine would operate more frequently.

The rotary plug-in version of the MX-30 will debut in the second half of the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. It will be introduced in the U.S. and Japan in sequence, a spokesman said.

The engine won't turn the wheels directly. It will act as a generator to recharge the battery. The battery will power an electric motor that drives the MX-30 just like a full-electric vehicle.

The rotary revival is part of Mazda's multisolution approach to electrification. The MX-30, which went on sale in 2020, can accommodate a range of drivetrains. A full EV is on sale in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. A mild hybrid is available in Japan and Australia.

The rotary plug-in addresses complaints that the range of the full EV version is lackluster. The electric MX-30 for Europe and Japan uses a relatively small 35.5-kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery and 105-kilowatt electric motor. In Europe, the range is rated at just 124 miles on the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure standard.

Mazda pitches the rotary engine as an optimal match for an electrified drivetrain in regions where there is a clean power source and a suitable recharging network.

The rotary engine has long been a Mazda bragging point since the company became the first to market the technology in 1967 in the Cosmo Sport/Mazda S110. Mazda's prowess with rotary engines was heralded with the 787B race car, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1991, the only victory for a Japanese brand or a car with a rotary engine.

Mazda retired the rotary engine with the RX-8 in 2012 amid slumping sales.

But in 2013, it revived the technology in prototype form as a gasoline-powered 0.33-liter range extender in a Mazda2 hatchback reconfigured to run on an electric motor.

That vehicle's name: RE Range Extender, short for Rotary Engine Range Extender.