As automakers rush to get their foot in the door of electrified and battery-electric vehicles, one storied automaker is putting their chips into a different technology from its past. 

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In a speech at the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon Mazda President and CEO Katsuhiro Moro announced that a special team of engineers have been assembled to look into rotary, or Wankel engine technology.

“In order to break through the challenges of the carbon-neutral era, rotary engine engineers who have acquired a broad technical perspective that transcends the boundaries of engine types and cutting-edge internal combustion engine technology, and who have been trained as users of model-based development,” will reunite, Moro said. “It is not so easy, but I hope we can take a step forward into a new chapter of insatiable challenge.”

Rotary engines were a key feature of Mazda  (MZDAF) – Get Free Report vehicles such as the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars, where its compact size, light weight and high power made them popular amongst enthusiasts.  

In 2023, Mazda reintroduced the engine in its MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV model, where a 0.8 liter variant served as a range extender for the car’s batteries, but it would last for only one model year before the MX-30 would end production.

Mazda is confident about its new team in part due to the positive response to the Iconic SP concept at the Japan Mobility Show on October 2023. At the show, Mazda said that the concept was to be powered by a 365 horsepower “two-rotor rotary EV system” that can run on hydrogen or other “carbon neutral fuels.”

Though Moro did not specify which specific models its new “rotary engine engineers” were working on, the Mazda CEO thanked the public for giving much praise to the sleek, sporty concept car.

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“I am very happy and deeply moved by all the support and encouragement I have received for the compact sports car concept. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all,” Moro said at the Tokyo Auto Salon. “With your encouragement, we are launching a rotary engine development group on 1 February to move closer to this dream.”

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