Yahoo Autos Mazda MX-30 R-EV revives the rotary
It's really, genuinely, actually here: a new Mazda with a rotary engine. The new MX-30 R-EV plug-in hybrid has been revealed. It looks a lot like the regular one, but it swaps a fair bit of battery for a sizable gas tank. It also picks up more horsepower and a special edition model.
Early on when Mazda announced the rotary range-extended MX-30 was on the way, we imagined it would be like the BMW i3; mostly an electric car with a gas engine that was more of a back-up generator. As it turns out, it's a little bit closer to a Chevy Volt. The battery capacity is half that of the full-electric model at 17.8 kWh. Mazda estimates 85 kilometers of range on the WLTP cycle, and we would expect about 50 miles, half what the electric version can do. That's not especially impressive, but it does seem that the gas engine will be able to let you go much further than the i3 could. Mazda didn't give a range estimate, but the gas tank is a sizable 13.2 gallons, compared to the i3's roughly 2 gallons. Fuel economy also wasn't given.
Still, MX-30 R-EV's whole system runs as a series hybrid, with the gas engine simply generating electricity as needed (when the battery is low and/or acceleration demand requires extra electricity from the gas engine), rather than directly driving the wheels. The electric motor in the R-EV is more powerful than the regular MX-30 with 168 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque. It's still not a rocket, though, with a 0-62 mph estimate of 9.1 seconds. The fact the R-EV weighs 293 pounds more than its all-electric twin probably contributes to that number.
Hanging off the side of the electric motor, and attached to a generator, is the first production rotary engine Mazda has built since 2012. It's called the 8C, and it has just a single rotor with a displacement of 830 cc. It has side intake and exhaust ports like the RX-8's Renesis engine, but it has direct fuel injection and an aluminum rotor housing. It makes 75 horsepower on its own, roughly twice what the i3's two-cylinder engine would make. Of course, this is just for generating electricity, rather than powering the wheels.
