Wheels, an Australian car magazine confirms that Mazda is working and developing a rotary engine that might soon hit the market. This happened on Monday at the Mazda Tech Forum in Germany where it was confirmed that Mazda is developing the Wankel rotary engine that has not been seen since 2012 after the discontinuation of the RX-8 sports car.
Mitsuo Hitomi said that they still are continuing the development of the rotary engine. He also noted that there are challenges in meeting the current emissions norms for which the company is working on ways to get the engine into production.
Meanwhile, Hidetoshi Kudo form Mazda said that they are contemplating the use of plasma and laser ignitions into their rotary engines but also noted that the price of such technological inclusions will be huge for the consumer. That being said, he affirmed that these ignition systems will improve power and reduce emissions significantly. This is not the first time Mazda has tried the revolutionary technology. Mazda's Skyactiv-X HCCI engine was once in development and is now tested and might soon come into production.
Mazda has also developed a variable exhaust port that helps the engine improve its torque curve at lower RPM which was the weaker point of the Wankel engines that had the rotary system. Together with the variable exhaust is the start-stop system that has been designed to avoid flooding and improve the fuel economy of the engine and reduce emissions. Mazda seems to have been trying hard to get the engine to comply with the emissions norms standards.
They are also working on a complex twin charging system that includes two turbochargers and an electric supercharger and this might also be featured in the rotary engine system. It will be intriguing to see what Mazda brings with all this technological wizardry that they are working with. The RX vision sports car is also a great looking piece of work and it will be amazing to see this beautiful car come with a rotary engine and the tech that Mazda now patents.
