A few days ago, Kung Fu Auto wrote about Mazda's dilemma in the Chinese market, with declining sales, slow product replacement, and no progress in electrification. Unexpectedly, the response was still very strong, and Mazda's true love fans were really many. On the one hand, everyone laments Mazda's situation and does not want this personalized brand to fall; on the other hand, they also admit that Mazda has made too few technological breakthroughs in the past decade, and once Chuangchi Blue Sky has become "old".
As a result, Mazda's patent for hybrid technology based on the rotor engine was exposed. The system, which uses a three-rotor engine and is rear-wheel drive, will be integrated into Mazda's new rear-drive platform, which greatly increases the likelihood of mass production.
The story of Mazda and rotor is really a long story, but can they be mass-produced? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
(1) Short-lived brilliance and endless persistence
Now when it comes to the rotor engine, many people first think of Mazda, and it seems that this set of technology has been firmly bound to it. In fact, the rotor engine was invented by the German Figas Wanger, who solved a series of key technical problems and finally developed the world's first rotor engine.
The working principle of this new engine is very special, it cancels the piston reciprocating linear motion of the traditional engine, and when working, the center of the triangle rotor rotates around the center of the output shaft, directly converting the expansion force generated by combustion into driving torque. In this way, almost all the transmission mechanisms of the engine are "dried", which has the advantages of small size, light weight and high power.
In the 1960s, Mazda took a fancy to this set of technologies and sent technicians to NSU (the predecessor of Audi) in West Germany to learn. In fact, at that time, it was not only Mazda that studied this engine, in addition to NSU, GM, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and other major automobile manufacturers were also developing.
As a result, everyone agreed that this thing is not practical, although it is small and lightweight, it is extremely noisy and the fuel consumption is very high. Of course, these are not the main points, and the most fatal thing is that its reliability has always been in doubt. Everyone knows that our ordinary engine, the piston is just a simple reciprocating movement, and there will be cylinder wall wear, piston ring deformation, that is, the common "burning oil" or increased oil, are the reasons for sealing, these problems even to this day still exist in large quantities.
When the rotor engine is working, the three vertices of its rotor will rotate while rubbing the inner wall of the cylinder at high speed, and the speed will easily reach more than 10,000 revolutions, and the difficulty of this sealing is geometrically increased. Major car companies have done in-depth research, but in the end they have given up, only Mazda has been insisting.
By 1967, Mazda introduced the first rotor-engined CosmoSport 110S. This was followed by the RX-3, also powered by a rotor engine, which ended the legendary sports car Nissan GT-R's winning streak in domestic competitions.
In 1991, the Mazda 55 787B car, with the R26B 2.6L four-rotor turbocharged engine, won the Le Mans 24 Hours of Endurance, and for a long time was the only Japanese brand to win the championship of the event, which can be said to be the highest moment of the Mazda rotor engine.
As a result, the official event did not talk about Wude, and the following year issued the "Mazda Clause", refusing to allow the rotor engine to participate in the event.
It can be said that Mazda's decades of investment have brilliantly achieved this, and then the "BUG" was immediately repaired by the organizing committee, which is indeed tragic. The civilian use of the rotor engine has not been smooth, the Chinese people are more familiar with the legendary sports car RX-7, it is the "head text D" Takahashi brothers' car, and then the RX-8, but overall poor reliability, high fuel consumption, poor emissions these problems have always been there.
Mazda, which has an obsession with rotor engines, has also opened a unique research and development path. That is to study the rotor, run out of money, sell the car well, make money, study the rotor again, and then there is no money, and the cycle starts. I just didn't expect that today in 2022, Mazda is still doing this, which is really unexpected.
(2) RX-Vision and MX30 extended range version, who will arrive first
After the RX-8 was discontinued, the rotor engine was virtually extinct. Although many fans miss Mazda's glorious era, they are just as dumbfounded when they use it.
Take RX-8 as an example, it has no supporting maintenance agencies in China, and the maintenance requirements of the partial rotor engine are extremely high, if it is not well maintained, it will be scrapped in two years, and the oil consumption is even more exaggerated, basically adding several times a month. Secondly, the power is actually not so good, of course, the roar that soars to more than 10,000 turns is a must.
At the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, Mazda released a new concept sports car, the RX Vision, which is quite cool in shape, and the new car is equipped with a rotor engine. But the car is more famous for announcing Mazda's elaborate crystal soul red car paint color, which is called "the most beautiful red in the world". In the following years, everyone's impression of Mazda seemed to turn red.
As for the patent for Mazda's new rotor hybrid system that we mentioned earlier, it is likely that it is installed on this car, because the new car is a rear-drive platform. However, with the current market situation, the performance car market continues to decline, and Mazda's hope of mass production of this car should be small.
The reason is also simple, the car released in 2015 has not been mass-produced by 2022, and the probability of follow-up will not consider mass production.
However, at last year's MX-30 Japan local launch conference, Mazda CEO personally admitted that the new MX-30 is already under development, and the new car will be equipped with a rotor engine, but it will be a range extended hybrid mode. That is, the rotor engine no longer directly drives the vehicle, but exists as a "generator".
The MX30 extended-range version will be equipped with a single-rotor engine with a displacement of 0.333L, which may be a bit exaggerated. In fact, the RX-8 of that year was equipped with a 1.3L rotor engine, but the performance was comparable to the 3.9L model, which was the innate advantage of the rotor engine. By analogy, the range effect of this 0.333L engine is probably equivalent to a 1.0L engine.
Mazda's 0.333L rotor engine weighs only 100kg, and the fuel consumption of the new car in the "feed" state is 4.3L/100km.
While this will encourage rotor fans, we also have to face the reality. Nissan e-POWER, which also uses a range-like model, has been developed for many years and has twice won Japan's Automotive Technology Award in the past three years. Taking Xuanyi e-POWER as an example, its urban comprehensive fuel consumption can reach 3.9L/100km.
So although the rotor engine has lowered the weight and lowered the engine displacement, the fuel consumption does not seem to be better than that of the same class. Consumers look at the "curative effect", look at better power, lower fuel consumption, more worry-free and durable, and the rotor does not seem to stick to this aspect.
Of course, there is another possibility, the upper limit of the rotor engine as a range extender is very high, after all, the first generation of products has been equalized with e-POWER for many years, which is still in the case of almost only Mazda car companies playing.
If global car companies pool their efforts, its technical indicators can be doubled. However, in the current situation, the high probability is that Mazda is self-congratulatory, and other car companies have no interest.
(3) Kung Fu shooting
Kung Fu Auto is also very much looking forward to mazda can solve the problems of the rotor engine, but as a drive source or as a range extender. Being able to give users one more choice is always good. But judging from the current situation, it still seems that it is still more difficult, and Mazda is still "enemies of the world".
Fortunately, the new car is already reluctant to leave us, and we are looking forward to the arrival of the MX-30 version of the journey.