"Mazda building a Volt of its own"

I love competition!

 

It's [not] funny how it is taking GM two years to make the Volt, yet Mazda hears the news, and in a matter of months, already has a working prototype!

"What makes this especially interesting is Ford owns Mazda, which means anything Mazda builds could appear in showrooms with a blue oval on the hood. Looks like the race is on." -that statement
could be HUGE!!!

 

Sweet.

 

Gee, I wonder if it will have a "B" mode, since the Wankel has very little engine breaking. If so, they'll have to spin that puppy near the red line to get any engine breaking on those looong downhills.

 

Actually, its been around longer than that; the original design was by NSU in Germany in the 50's.

Wankel engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the issues with the rotary is emissions; it has never been great with regard to emissions but has high power output for its size similar to a two stroke engine.

GM better get their butt in gear!

 

A Wankel engine as a range extender is just about the worst possible choice.

The whole point of an EV genset is to have the highest possible thermal efficiency running at optimal rpms and load. That's why Prius uses an 'Atkinson' cycle engine.

Standard Otto-cycle gasoline engines manage up to 31% efficiency, Prius 'Atkinson-like' engine 35% efficiency, diesel engines 40-45% efficiency but wankel engines something like 22% efficiency. Using one would be very wasteful of fuel.

 

The Wankel, for the power it produces is much lighter and smaller than a typical ICE. That difference should allow for a much bigger battery that will absorb all the energy you can make from regen braking on those really long downhills.

 

What is the rated efficiency of the Renesis 16x? Hint: it's way way better than 22%.

 

Supposedly, the rotary has come a long way in terms of efficiency and emmissions, but it's main advantage for this is it's size. Mazada may be able to use a 0.5L as opposed to GM's 1.4 or Toyota's 1.5 or 1.8. Which means more space for batteries. Which, in turn, means the less often the engine even turns on.

 

In that case it's engine braking abilities will be ZERO!. I hope it has disk brakes all around and really heavy duty ones. I've had drum brakes fail on me. Never disk brakes, but then I still have my old manual driving habits and will kill OD or downshift before going for the brakes, situation permitting of course. I get really good mileage on brake pads. I guess I'm just old school and like to have redundancy or backup options for life threatening situation. Battery size doesn't matter as much as if it's a plug-in you don't live at the top of a looong hill. Anyway, just musing. Had a few minutes to kill.

 

True, EPA ratings, which used to be a problem, now meets even California's tough standards since they moved the exhaust ports to the side in the RX-8's Renesis engine.

 

Vaporware in competition with vaporware. sheez. I'm I the only geezer on PC that remembers tons of promised let-downs? Not that I've lost ALL hope, but has anyone archived all the promised electrics over the past 2 decades? It's hard enough for me to keep up with all the hydrogen hoax articles.

 

Gee! If only we had an efficient way of capturing and using all the energy in all the hot air being released.:brushteeth:

 

Put it in a Mazda 5, keep the price in check, and you'd probably have a runaway hit.

Rob