Mazda’s New Premacy Hydrogen Hybrid Rotary Engine Car Takes to the Road
Mazda’s newest hydrogen rotary engine will take to public roads in Japan for testing this year. The company says the vehicle is the world’s first hydrogen hybrid car with a dual-fuel system, enabling the use of either hydrogen or gasoline.
The Japanese government has given Mazda Motor Corporation permission to test the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid minivan on public roads in that country. The next step will be commercial leasing in Japan during this fiscal year.
The engine’s hybrid system increases power by 40 percent, and is said to increase hydrogen fuel range to 200 kilometers, (135 miles). This is accomplished with the addition of an electric motor to enhance performance.
Mazda plans on debuting the Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid alongside the RX-8 Hydrogen RE at the G8 Hoddaido Toyako Summit in July.
Plant-derived materials used for some of the vehicle’s interior plastic parts and seat covers are also featured in the new car, a part of what Mazda calls its Sustainable Zoom-Zoom environmental plan.
Click here for more details on the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid,
Image: Mazda Corporation
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There has to be some kind of patent reform. It’s necessary to project ideas, but it surely does get abused and damper on innovation.
Just when i was getting worried that the rotary engine would eventually phase out, Mazda steps up again. Money.
Mazda, you still have a lot of fans out there, never fear!
Sunder - you’re amazingly uninformed. The patents that cover the basic wankel rotary design all expired years ago, and Mazda has continuously sold cars with rotary engines since the early 1970s. There was a 1-2 year gap between the last RX-7 production run in 2001 and the first of the RX-8 in 2002, but thats it. US availability may be another issue, with the 3rd gen RX-7 becoming unavailable in the US after about 1996 but thats only one market of many in the world.
Practically everybody except Mazda shelved their rotary programmes - including Citroen, Mercedes and General Motors by the 1980s. GM actually planned a Corvette with a 4-rotor engine, and Mercedes broke speed records with their 4-rotor C111 prototypes.
Mazdas current rotary patents apply to some aspects of their refinements to the basic rotary design, notable intake, porting, possibly exhaust emissions reduction and may cover direct hydrogen injection, but I believe most of Mazdas older metallurgical patents - the key to rotary reliability - have expired now, and there is no barrier to entry for anybody wanting to build a rotary engine apart from the technical ones - even if you were pretty much just cloning a 12A or 13B for your engine design it would be quite legal to sell.
There are lots of good reasons why the Wankel rotary is difficult to build reliably, or with good fuel economy - mostly due to combustion chamber shape and sealing issues, thoughthe real issues are complex and this subject is well covered elsewhere.
It is uniquely well suited to hydrogen combustion because the rotor divides the engine into 3 separate spaces, and at no time before combustion does hydrogen/air ever come into contact with hot engine components e.g. exhaust valves which is the biggest reason why piston engines don’t deal well with hydrogen - pre-ignition/backfiring is the major problem.
The last company you should be pointing the finger at for ’shelving’ rotary development is Mazda, and your ‘owns patents for rotary engines’ assertion is only peripherally (sic) true.
The rotary engine has been in producion by Mazda since 1966 and in a Mazda automobile every model year since.
Also was the first Japanese manufacturer to win overall at LeMans!
Great article Max! Keep up the great work!
I think it should be noted that this hydrogen vehicle appears to be a hydrogen combustion engine as opposed to a hydrogen fuel cell engine. I think there is a lot of confusion about the difference between burning hydrogen which would still result in hydrocarbon emissions and combining hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell which would result in water vapor emissions.
Well, Mazda has the RX-8 sportscar out there, which is the successor to the RX-7 of rotary fame. Their renesis engine is supposed to be pretty advanced and of very compact size. But rotary engines, while they offer good power-to-weight ratio and higher rpm, are still poor on fuel consumption. So that means you have to pay more at the pump - or at least pay more often.
too bad they havent found a cheap way to produce hydrogen… short sighted dont you think?
Watch “Who killed the electric car?” and tell me about what you think of mazda? They developed an electric car years ago with a battery that can surpass any other and what did they do? sold the patent to Opec… and what did Opec do with the patent? Trash it!
Typo Alert:
…the G8 Hoddaido Toyako Summit in July.
I believe that that should be:
…the G8 Hokaido Toyako Summit in July.