TOKYO – Mazda’s pledge to release more electric vehicles might not signal the end of its celebrated rotary engine. The firm is reportedly developing a hydrogen-burning Wankel that could be used to power a successor to the RX-8.
Without citing sources, Japanese magazine Best Car wrote that Mazda has never fully stopped developing the rotary engine. It significantly scaled back the program after production of the RX-8 ended in 2012, but reports circulated and even patents for rotary tech appeared in the intervening years. It expanded it again in the late 2010s to design a range extender for the MX-30 electric crossover. The development team’s focus has now shifted to making a Wankel that’s capable of burning hydrogen, according to the same report.
Details such as horsepower, torque, and the number of rotors haven’t been released yet, likely because the engine is still at the embryonic stage of development, but it’s a solution that presents several technical advantages. One of hydrogen’s weak points is that it tends to ignite at heat spots inside the cylinders. Best Car noted that there are no heat spots in a Wankel engine, because it uses rotors rather than pistons, so it’s well suited to burning hydrogen.
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