Mazda’s Next Rotary Sports Car Delayed Until After 2020

It’s been rumored for a while that Mazda would reveal the successor to the RX-8 in 2020, a date that marks the Japanese automaker’s 100th anniversary. At one point, that may have been the plan, but according to the latest report, that’s definitely not going to happen.

Speaking with Australia’s Motoring, Kiyoshi Fujiwara, Mazda’s head of research and development, blamed a lack of money for the delay. “We cannot provide the RX Vision to the market by 2020, because we do not have enough money to invest, to commercialize it,” Fujiwara said. In a different conversation, Mitsuo Hitomi, head of Mazda’s Technical Research Center, reportedly told the Australian publication that in order for the RX Vision to go on sale in 2020, the team would need to already be nearly finished with the design and engineering work. According to Hitomi, that work still has yet to begin.

But as disappointing as that may be for rotary enthusiasts to hear, there is some good news. Mazda’s still working on the rotary engine. And it will make a comeback in the next couple years as a range extender for an electric car. In “2019 or 2020 we release the EV with range extender rotary engine—this is completely a range extender unit,” said Fujiwara. “Because that is one of the merits of the rotary engine we have to utilize it for range extender.”

And if Mazda’s next generation of cars is successful enough, there may be enough money available to bring a rotary sports car to market. “If we achieve success probably we can have money enough to invest in the next challenge, then we can judge to go ahead. It’s going to be too late to make the RX-Vision for the centennial,” said Fujiwara. “But we have still been developing rotary engines as a sports car. Technology is going well but if we launch this kind of model later, we will have to add more technology to it, like autonomous driving, [and] electrification.”

Assuming a production version of the RX Vision does happen, expect to see Mazda offer multiple versions. “Most of the rotary engine fans are still waiting for a sports car with the rotary engine, therefore we are still developing the rotary engine as a sports car. No range extender, no e-power,” Fujiwara said. “However some cities will ban combustion, therefore we need some additional portion of electrification because the driver can’t use this rotary sports car. Some of the regions we don’t need this small electrification, therefore we can utilize pure rotary engines. We would have two versions. It will be easy.”

Source: Motoring

 

The post Mazda’s Next Rotary Sports Car Delayed Until After 2020 appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2zKKdLG