BETTER PARTSWankel-Comeback at Mazda
Hiroshima (Japan), 5. March 2018
If there is a car manufacturer that is associated with the rotary engine, Mazda. The brand figures sold the circular piston in a million pieces and won the 1991 24 hours of Le Mans with a Wankel technology. However, since the end of production of the RX-8 in 2012, the Wankel was on the siding. Now there is, but for Fans of this drive's good news: in 2019, Mazda brings back the rotary engine.
Mazda: E-car from 2019
Background, an Interview that Martijn has given ten Brink, "Vice President of Sales and Customer Service" for Europe, the Dutch website AutoRAI. There, he confirmed the Comeback of the Wankel engine. In the framework of the so-called "Zoom-Zoom 2030"Plan, Mazda will build for 2019, is an electric car. As an Option, then a rotary for the range extender. Need not be given of the average day-Radius of the customers of 60 kilometers, actually, but they wanted to dispel all the concerns on the part of the customer, as ten Brink.
Wankel in a Shoe box
In the case of the Range Extender is a turbo-charged single-disc Wankel. He will be deeply built-in and exclusively as a Generator function, the car so not a direct drive. According to ten Brink, the Motor is no bigger than a Shoe box and vibration will work. Means: The driver should feel no sharp Transition, if the Wankel engine is switched on.
Audi thought similar
Wankel connoisseurs will be familiar to the Mazda conceived the concept: in 2010, presented by Audi, the A1 e-tron, and tested a small-scale in Munich, but without the concept to pursue. In the A1 e-tron is a single-disc Wankel worked with 254 cubic centimeter of chamber volume with a constant 5,000 Rpm. Plus point: the Wankel runs in the optimal-load condition and the fuel consumption in the frame. Back to the Audi A1 e-tron: There the input of the circle end of the piston to a Generator, the generated 15 kilowatts of electrical power. The weight of the Motor and the Generator was at around 70 kilograms.
The RX-Vision goes into production?
Were allowing 200 km of extra range, because in the A1 e-tron, there was only a small Lithium-ion battery with a 12 kilowatt-hours of capacity. That was only enough for 50 kilometers. Mazda would seem to rely on more battery range. An advantage lies in the fact that Mazda is able to offer a Wankel-type engines, in-house, Audi had to refer to the drive externally. And what's with the Wankel as the sole drive a car? 2015 Mazda revealed the stunning study RX-Vision. Conceivable is a small-scale manufacturing in the year 2020 would be. Then Mazda 100 years old and in Tokyo, the summer Olympic games.(rh)