Mazda RX-Vision concept
Mazda has repeatedly teased?or tortured?Wankel-engine fans with the possibility of a multirotor sports car and then retracted that possibility. Now, new patent applications show the brand is once again working on the rotary, but in an application that’s likely to dash the hopes of the engine?s fans: using its iconic engine as an onboard generator, rather than the free-revving heart of a sports car.
It?s not a new idea for the brand. Mazda tested the idea a decade ago in the hydrogen-fueled, rotary-range-extended electric Mazda 5 (Premacy) minivan and more recently in the electric Mazda 2 RE Range Extender (an application similar to that of the BMW i3), which complemented an electric-only version of the Mazda 2 in Japan. Two new U.S. patents filed by Mazda, and first reported by Autoblog, indicate that the company is still at work on that idea for a small car. One of the patents covers the layout of the Mazda 2 RE while the other points specifically to the Wankel?and a mechanism that would stop it at precisely the place in its combustion cycle that would minimize emissions while easing restarting.

Mazda spokesperson Jacob Brown confirmed that the automaker has continued to study and develop range-extending technologies based around the pistonless engine, and he also confirmed that Mazda is planning to launch an electric vehicle in 2019. ?We can?t quite say yet where a potential EV or PHEV would be sold, as the vehicle doesn?t exist,? Brown...