Mazda MX-30 to gain a rotary range extender this year

When Mazda unveiled the MX-30 – it’s first series production electric vehicle – back in October 2019, the Japanese carmaker revealed that a range-extender version featuring a rotary engine would be made available later on.

That plan appears to be still on track based on the company’s latest release, which celebrates the rotary engine as an important part of the company’s 100-year history. Exact details about the rotary range extender that will be used in the MX-30 aren’t available just yet, but it appears to be based on a system used in the past.

Diving into Mazda’s history books, the company previously developed a prototype Demio (Mazda 2) electric car in 2013 with a 38 PS (38 hp), 330 cc single-rotor Wankel rotary engine as a range extender. With it, the test vehicle was capable of delivering an EV range of 380 km, which is almost double of the original Demio EV (without a range extender) prototype that came the year before with around 200 km of EV range.

“The company developed a prototype Mazda 2 EV with a small, single-rotor engine used as a range extender. A similar system could find its way onto the Mazda MX-30, a brand-new battery electric crossover SUV arriving at dealerships this year,” the carmaker stated in its release.

Of course, this isn’t the only mention of the MX-30 with a rotary range extender, as another video posted on Mazda UK’s YouTube page also confirmed the matter. We’ll only know more when all is revealed later this year.

The MX-30 is powered by Mazda’s e-SkyActiv powertrain, which consists of an electric motor driving the front wheels rated at 141 hp (105 kW) and 264 Nm of torque. The e-motor draws power from a 35.5 kWh battery that both AC and DC charging, with the former capable of accepting a maximum input of 6.6 kW via a Type 2 connection. Meanwhile, DC charging is accomplished via a CCS connection, and with a 50-kW input, a depleted battery can reach an 80% state of charge in around 30 to 40 minutes.