Mazda confirms that the next generation of the rotary engine has been suspended

The rotary engine has been the trademark of Mazda throughout almost its entire history. However, with the demise of the RX-8, the Wankel engine received a rest period that, apparently, will be much longer than we imagined. And it is that with the change of CEO at Mazda, there are also new plans that do not include a new generation of rotary engines.

Masamichi Kogai has announced that the development of the new generation of these engines will be suspended and that it will not be within the company’s immediate plans. Simply put, the rotary engine is not commercially viable, since according to Kogai, the brand would need to sell around 100,000 units a year to become profitable.

Let us recall that a few months ago there had been talk of developing a hybrid rotary engine as the next step for this technology. The rotary engine would act as an electricity generator for electric motors. But this soon turned out to be merely an expression of wishes; the new CEO’s policy within the company obliges greater attention to economic results than to investing in new development.

Kogai announced that, although the company will not bring new rotary-engined models to market, there are engineers from the brand assigned to keep developing ideas that could be used in the near future. Mazda has been the only manufacturer to offer them for sale, so it is responsible for not allowing them to disappear, although at present economic results are what call the shots.

Source | Automotive News