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Mazda Says It Will Begin Mass Producing Hydrogen Rotary Engines as Early as 2013


Mazda doesn't get nearly the attention of Japan's Big 3, but it's hard to believe the automaker would remain No. 4 if its work on hydrogen-powered vehicles continues as it has.

And now the company known for extensive use of the Felix Wankel engine (think rotary) is gunning to become famous for hydrogen hybrid rotary engines.

Speaking to the British publication Autocar Wednesday, Mazda CEO for Europe James Muir said the automaker "will do the hydrogen rotary engine, but it won't be in production for at least five years."

That's significant, because while many automakers are working on hydrogen vehicles, most are focusing on running hydrogen through a fuel cell to generate electricity for an electric motor.

fVery few carmakers -- Mazda among them -- are burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine. And that's something Mazda has been doing for a while with success.

Indeed, it has been four years to the month since the Japanese government granted Mazda approval to road test modified RX-8 sports cars that can run on gasoline and hydrogen with the flick of a switch.

With that approval, Mazda built a test fleet of more than 30 hydrogen-fueled rotary RX-8 Hydrogen RE (rotary engine) sports cars and drove the heck out of them.

The result of all that testing: The engine "proved ideal for burning hydrogen as the intake area of a rotary engine stays relatively cool in temperature, reducing the tendency for engine backfire -- a significant challenge in conventional engines."

That's because rotary engines have separate intake and combustion chambers (see animation), which are ideal for hydrogen's exceptionally high burn rate, and the engine's design permits precise direct injection of the fuel.

Conversely, the combustion chambers of conventional engines tend to run very hot, which cause them to backfire when fed hydrogen.

Encouraged by the success of the RX-8 Hydrogen REs, Mazda continued to work on the dual-fuel system. This past June Tokyo gave Mazda permission to road test a hydrogen-gasoline hybrid minivan fitted with a supplemental electric motor hooked up to lithium-ion batteries.

The 30-kilowatt electric motor, which allows for torque assistance, stop/start functionality and regenerative braking, gives the minivan a 124-mile driving range, or twice that of the RX-8 Hydrogen RE sports car. And, the hybrid system gives the minivan 40 percent more power than the sports car.

Zoom-zoom indeed.