It’s difficult to decide whether or not we should be excited about the now confirmed return of Mazda’s famed rotary engine. Normally, we’d be jumping for joy at the prospect of lots of horsepower and engine revs, but the news is not about either of those or the return of the next RX-7…
Mazda’s VP of sales and customer service in Europe, Martijn ten Brink, corroborated to Netherlands-based zerauto.nl that the rotary will be returning to Mazda’s line-up however only as a range-extender for an as-of-yet unnamed car that will be based on the company’s Small Car Platform.
The rotary engine itself will be a single-rotor setup without turbo- or supercharging and will function solely as a generator. The reason for using the rotary is that the engine is extremely compact and when operating, is vibration free.
The Mazda range-extended car is expected sometime in 2019. A new Mazda3 with a full battery of the latest SkyActiv chassis and SkyActiv-X powertrain is also planned for 2019.
