mi sa che stavolta è finita....100k auto all'anno per sostenere i costi di sviluppo sono veramente un'ostacolo insormontabile.

può funzionare solo in un'ibrido e con carburanti alternativi....

emissioni, crisi e demotorizzazione (o comunque diverso rapporto con l'auto) continuano a far vittime....

New Mazda boss: Rotary is a no-go

Hans Greimel, Automotive News

November 18, 2013 - 12:01 am ET

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Masa-michi Kogai, the new CEO of Mazda Motor Corp., has set what looks like an impossibly high bar for reintroducing the company's rotary engine.

Sales would have to total 100,000 a year for Mazda to resurrect the technology, he said. So Mazda isn't planning a rotary revival, he said.

"No plans now," Kogai said in an interview Friday. "It has to be a viable commercial proposition. If we are going to adopt it, it has to be a product that can generate at least sales of 100,000 units a year. We have to be able to achieve a profit."

Kogai, a no-nonsense production veteran with a knack for cost crunching, took office in June after overhauling the company's manufacturing.

Among his coups: transforming Mazda's erstwhile loss-making Japan operations into a lean export machine able to post profits with tough foreign exchange rates.

The rotary engine had been a Mazda bragging point ever since the company became the first to market the technology in 1968, in its Familia Rotary Coupe/Mazda R100.

But the company killed the powerplant last year when the last RX-8 sports car rolled off the line. The engine is also known as the Wankel after the German engineer who invented it.

A rebirth has been the subject of incessant speculation -- often fueled by Mazda itself. Last year, then-President Takashi Yamanouchi dangled the idea of putting a rotary in a hybrid vehicle to generate electricity that would charge the battery.

Nothing has come of that so far.

The engine's chief hurdle is technical -- meeting today's more stringent emissions regulations. It would also mean giving valuable production capacity to a unique small-batch model.

In 2011, the RX-8's last full-year of sales in the United States, Mazda sold only 759 of the cars in its biggest market. The RX-8's peak annual sales in the United States were 23,690 units in 2004, according to the Automotive News Data Center. The rotary-powered RX-7's U.S. sales peak was 56,203 units in 1986.

At today's lean Mazda, which just booked its first annual profit in five years, the new priorities are cost performance, economies of scale and uniform manufacturing. So it's hardly receptive to what some may see as vanity projects.

Still, Kogai said Mazda hasn't completely abandoned the notion. Engineers continue to research the technology, he said, in part because the rotary engine can run flexibly on a wide variety of fuels, including gasoline, hydrogen and even kerosene.

"We are the first and only manufacturer to commercialize the rotary engine. In that respect, we have some responsibility," Kogai said. "So please allow us to continue our research."

Modificato 18 Novembre 201311 anni fa da Regazzoni

Vorrà dire che di rotativo resteranno solo le gonadi dei guidatori

Peccato, ma Mazda era forse troppo piccola per portar avanti da sola lo sviluppo.

Anche se come extender a mio parere, sarebbe molto migliore dei reciprosauri

fossi il CEO di Mazda andrei da Rotaronne e gli proporrei lo sviluppo congiunto

fossi il CEO di Mazda andrei da Rotaronne e gli proporrei lo sviluppo congiunto

La risposta di Marchionne:

Bah, mi pare che il rotativo sia un progetto simpatico ma con consumi costi ed emissioni al di fuori di ogni progetto ecologico. Non vorrei sembrare cinico, ma potrebbe morire in pace...

Ci basta il rotowash...

no sti giappi si stanno occidentalizzando troppo, prima erano più folli. Mazda senza rotativo in gamma, tristezza. IMHO come range estender per l'ibrido poteva dire la sua.

no sti giappi si stanno occidentalizzando troppo, prima erano più folli. Mazda senza rotativo in gamma, tristezza. IMHO come range estender per l'ibrido poteva dire la sua.

comunque se leggi bene hanno più o meno detto: basta RX (intesa come macchina sportiva col motore rotativo). questo mi pare certo.

poi sul fatto di usarlo in modi non convenzionali, dice chiaramente che gli studi vanno avanti.

è il concetto della macchina a benzina da 200-300cv col rotativo che è finito..

100k/anno rx-9 (o nuova rx-7..come volete) non le fai nemmeno morto oggi...

Alcuni messaggi sono stati spostati in una discussione creata per parlare un pò delle possibili applicazioni non automotive del Wankel

http://www.autopareri.com/forum/scienze-tecnologie/63641-applicazioni-non-automotive-del-wankel.html

La risposta di Marchionne:

la risposta di marchionne: "accatatevillo"