Mazda MX-30 gets rotary range extender

KUALA LUMPUR: Mazda unveiled the MX-30 in October 2019, and back then, the Japanese carmaker said that a range-extender version with a rotary engine would be made available later.

The said plan seems to be still on track based on Mazda’s latest release that celebrated the rotary engine as an essential part of the automaker’s 100-year completion in the industry. The exact details about the rotary engine to be used in MX-30 are still not known. However, it appears to be based on a system used in the past.

Going through Mazda’s history, the carmaker in 2013 developed a prototype Demio (Mazda 2) electric car with a 330cc single-rotor Wankel rotary engine developing 38 PS as a range extender. With it, the test car delivered a range of 380 km, which is almost double what the original Demio EV without the range extender produced (around 200 km of EV range).

In its release, Mazda stated that “The company developed a prototype Mazda 2 EV with a small, single-rotor engine used as a range extender. A similar system could find its way onto the Mazda MX-30, a brand-new battery-electric crossover SUV arriving at dealerships this year.”

In addition to the statement mentioned above, the presence of a rotary engine extender in the MX-30 was also confirmed by Mazda UK’s YouTube page. More details will be released after its reveal that is scheduled for later this year.

Powering the ongoing Mazda MX-30 is an e-SkyActiv powertrain with an electric motor driving the front wheels producing 141 hp of maximum power and 264 Nm of peak torque. The e-motor delivers its power from a 35.5 kWh battery with both AC and DC charging. The former can accept a maximum input of 6.6 kW via Type 2 connection. As for the DC charging, it uses a CCS connection, and with a 50 kW input, the battery can get 80 percent charged in around 30-40 minutes.

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