Recently, Mazda officially announced that its classic rotor engine will be installed on the MX-30 model in the form of a range extender, and will officially release the extended range version of the MX30 in March next year. The current MX30 has two powered versions, including a fuel version and an all-electric version. The new extended range version will use the rotor engine as a generator.
At present, the pure electric version of the MX30 has a cruising range of 256 kilometers, as an oil-to-electricity model, this mileage is also too short to meet the needs of daily use. Mazda will increase the range extender to 400 km, even in the case of power loss, the comprehensive fuel consumption can be controlled at about 5L/100km.
Mazda has been obsessed with the study of rotor engines for many years, and this time it is really the right way, because in terms of current technology, it is unrealistic to install rotor engines on civilian fuel vehicles, and it is more appropriate to be equipped with range extender hybrids, just to be able to take advantage of the strengths and avoid the shortcomings.
In fact, not only Mazda has done this, as early as 10 years ago, Audi once developed an Audi A1e-tron extended range electric vehicle. As a range extender is a rotor engine with a displacement of only 0.254 liters, the vehicle has a pure electric endurance of about 50km, and then travels 200km of extended range in the state of full fuel (12L fuel tank), which is very advanced 10 years ago, but unfortunately, Audi did not continue this technical research in the end.
The advantages and disadvantages of the rotor engine are very obvious, the advantages are light weight, small size, low operating noise, large displacement power, and high upper limit of speed. The disadvantages are high fuel consumption, severe wear, short life and high maintenance costs. However, as a range extender, it can take advantage of its strengths and avoid its weaknesses.
First of all, mazda used rotor engine displacement of 0.33L, the volume is very small, the weight is not heavy, can save a lot of space in the car, Mazda has said that it does not want to sacrifice the drivability of the vehicle because of the weight of the battery, so the MX-30 pure electric version of the mileage is shorter, and the use of a small rotor engine as a range extender, can make up for its short endurance, and the rotor engine itself is relatively small characteristics, will not occupy more space and weight in the car.
Secondly, in a unit volume, the power output of the rotor engine is much higher than that of the conventional piston engine. Its triangular speed and spindle speed are 1 to 3 ratio, simply put, every time the triangular rotor rotates, the engine will ignite 3 times. Compared with the four-stroke engine used in the traditional internal combustion engine, which only does work once every two turns, the rotor engine runs at a higher speed. When used as a range extender, the importance of speed is self-evident.
Finally, because of the unique rotary work mode, the vibration in the working state of the rotor engine is also smaller. The smoothness and tranquility of the rotor engine are incomparable to the traditional internal combustion engine, and for the model of range extended hybrid, the rotor engine can improve the running quality of this car.
The disadvantages of high fuel consumption of the rotor engine, because the range extender hybrid does not directly drive the vehicle, and the rotor engine only works in the range of the highest efficiency, so the problem of fuel economy can be compensated to a certain extent, in addition, the problem of serious wear, I believe Mazda is also trying to overcome, otherwise it will not mass-produce such a car.
Even in Le Mans standing on the opposite side of the reciprocating piston engine world, Mazda has not given up the rotor engine, although we often ridicule Mazda, the car is to make money, make money is to study the rotor, but it has to be said that in this business society, it is not easy to insist on more than ten years to study a technology that can not bring benefits in the short term, it is not easy, we should pay tribute to Mazda.