Mazda’s WANKEL Rotary Engine OFFICIALLY returns – but not where you want it

Mazda has officially confirmed that Wankel Rotary engine production will start, probably in 2019, as Mazda find a way to make the Wankel engine commercially viable.

Petrolheads love the Mazda Rotary Wankel engine for its lightness and high-revving power, even if it used almost more oil than it did petrol.

But problems with the Wankel engine’s commercial viability has meant it’s years since the Wankel was put under the bonnet of a production car – but that’s about to change.

Mazda has announced that a new Wankel engine will be used in a forthcoming electric Mazda, standing alongside a pure EV in a range-extender version – very like the motorcylcle engine you’ll find in a BMW i3 REx.

The compact, free-revving nature of a Wankel engine has long seemed suited to use as a range extender in electric cars, with Mazda doing exactly that in a hydrogen EV in 2012 and in the Mazda2 EV in 2013, and Audi flirted with the same Wankel range-extender for the A1 in 2011. But none came to pass.

It’s good to see the Wankel Rotary Engine finding a place again – although it should have been used this way sooner – but it’s a shame it’s not a proper sized Wankel sitting under a production version of the Mazda RX Vison Concept (pictured above). We can but hope.