Opinion: Mazda’s rotary range extender is a silly idea
rather than drive the wheels. As a result, the MX-30 will always drive like the engaging EV that it is, but with freedom to charge from the wall or on the go.” Despite the adulatory PR speak, that doesn’t sound all that great for a few reasons, and not just because of the dubious market prospects of range extenders these days.
Range extenders might still serve a purpose for a little while. More range-extended EVs would probably have better served the public than the numerous plug-inwith minimal electric range that we got instead, especially prior to the longer-range BEVs available now. REx systems are a last resort for ameliorating range anxiety, largely for owners who don’t live where public charging infrastructure is built out.
Range extenders should no longer be an excuse to offer crappy range from an EV. Then you’ve just got a low-performingIf you’re driving an EV with a meager range of 100 miles — or less if Mazda has to sacrifice battery capacity to make room for the rotary system — many drivers will find themselves relying on that extender too often, killing the joy of having an EV, while others will avoid employing it as much as possible, if at all .
Most of the fun of a Wankel engine, besides its status as an automotive oddity, is its personality at peak performance, specifically the high revs, the distinct sound and the power delivery. And while those thrills won’t translate in a range extender, the rotary will add complexity and another vector of eventual maintenance to ownership. With the luxury of hindsight, a rotary’s reliability isn’t something to get excited about.
If you’re going to put up with a rotary engine in an electrified car, you should at least get to enjoy the advantages it does offer. But its inherent compromises lead me to think, despite Mazda’s current attempt to prove the contrary, that the rotary is dead for good.
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