What's this then?
Mazda has confirmed that it's bringing back the rotary engine, in a move surely designed to draw publicity away from the Paris Motor Show (at which Mazda is not appearing). It won't be making a new RX-7 sports car (sadly), but it will be making an ultra-compact rotary engine that will be a range extender for Mazda's new electric car.
Like the BMW i3, that new electric model will come as either a batteries-only EV, or with the range extender rotary. The rotary engine is ideal for this sort of application - it's small, light and very smooth, and Mazda says that the new engine is being designed to run on ultra-clean liquified petroleum gas (LPG).
It's all part of Mazda's 'Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030' plan with which the Japanese car maker wants to cut its CO2 emissions by 50 per cent in 2030 and by 90 per cent in 2050.
Neil Briscoe - 2 Oct 2018
