See this article on a new Mazda Powerplant that is all electric with a Rotary Engine to generate electricity - have a prototype in a MPV, but could be used in a "Volt" type car. Cooollll!

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/08/mazda-building.html

Wow, this is the first I think any of us heard about this. I wonder if its the same base process as the volt, plug in with the rotary merely recharging the batteries or used to transport for over 40 miles.

Brillo and I have talked about this use of the rotary for well over a year now and he even joked that the rotary could ultimately be saved by using it as a generator. Could be.

Here's some food for thought. The 16X is supposedly 20% more efficient than the Renesis while also being around 20% larger. Now take that new efficient combustion chamber geometry and apply it to a smaller engine for use as a generator. The Volt engine is going to be 70 hp. If you made a small 70 hp rotary and the efficiency was the same, we are now only talking about a half liter engine or so. Tune it to run efficiently at one rpm and give it the ultimate flex fuel capability and suddenly you've got a nice little package. It would be very small, wouldn't need a complex intake or exhaust and if built out of aluminum would be very light. It would be the smallest generator out there for it's power level. I think it could work nicely. Now if they could just get off the whole hydrogen kick...

I think a rotary generator for an electric car would have an advantage over current piston engine-based/electric designs as most gas-electric hybrids have much heavier drivetrains (from all the additional hardware) than traditional drivetrains, that reduce the realized fuel economy benefits.

A rotary-electric, should be able to produce a drivetrain that has the same gas efficiencies (with the latest rotary advances) with much reduced weight - allowing better realization of the potential fuel savings and more "Zoom Zoom" da boot.

Should be interesting to see how and when Mazda decides to utilize this powertrain.

the car already exists.

it's the mazda5 HRE without the hydrogen part (tank-Injectors-electronics)

i dont'know why Mazda dont' have talked before of this possibilities of its hybrid powertrain....:sad:

It has always been the Mazda 5/Premacy HRE. It was approved in June for public road testing.

http://www.mazda.com/publicity/release/2008/200806/080620.html