The Mazda Motor Corporation will accelerate its research and development of the rotary engine, which is already being used in the Mazda MX-30 R-EV and included as a powertrain idea for the Iconic SP concept at the recent Japan Mobility Show 2023, for use in future electrified models.
The new RE Development Group will continue to evolve the rotary engine, which is an ideal size to be used as a generator in electrified models, and will conduct research and development in areas such as regulatory compliance in major markets as well as the application of carbon-neutral fuels.
Commenting on the new team, Director, Senior Managing Executive Officer, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Ichiro Hirose said, “In Mazda’s history, the rotary engine is a special symbol of our ‘challenger spirit.’ We are deeply grateful to all those who have supported the rotary engine to date, and are pleased to announce the rebirth of the organization that develops RE, the engine that has been loved by customers around the world. For the last six years, our rotary engine team have been part of the engine development organization where they engaged in the development of state-of-the-art internal combustion engine functions as well as the ultimate improvement in efficiency. Those engineers have broadened their perspective beyond the boundaries of engine systems, and have trained themselves to master the ‘Model-Based Development,’ which is one of Mazda’s engineering strengths. This time, 36 engineers will gather in one group to make a breakthrough in the research and development of the rotary engine. In the age of electrification and in a carbon-neutral society, we promise to keep delivering attractive cars that excite customers with our ‘challenger spirit.'”
The rotary engine is an engine with a unique structure that generates power by rotating a triangular rotor. Mazda was the first to install the rotary engine in the Cosmo Sport introduced in 1967, and for many years since then, Mazda has been working to improve performance in terms of output, exhaust-gas purification, fuel economy, and durability as the only automobile manufacturer to mass-produce rotary engines. In June 2023, the company resumed mass production of vehicles with rotary engines for the first time in approximately 11 years since the end of production of the Mazda RX-8 in 2012. Currently, the Mazda MX-30 e-SKYACTIV R-EV, the 12th model that mounts a rotary engine, has been introduced in Japan and Europe.
