Evolution of Hybrid Hydrogen Rotary (in Mazda 5)
 

One of the non-Rx-8, non-Furai press releases from Detroit is the updating of the Mazda5 hydrogen hybrid rotary... I know, it's a minivan (albeit a micro-sized one), still the claimed improvements to the hydrogen powertrain are intriguing. I wish there was a bit more in the way of technical detail, though.

Edit: I realize this car has been paraded around for a few years... I'd just never seen any specifics on the drivetrain performance-- I see now that they rolled out this same press release with the Tokyo show last October-- sorry if its a repost.

http://media.ford.com/mazda/article_...83&make_id=227

Some items of interest from the release:

The evolved hydrogen rotary engine delivers Zoom-Zoom power

Output of the evolved power unit is increased by 40% compared with the RX-8 Hydrogen RE resulting in much better acceleration performance. The hydrogen rotary engine, the core unit of the model, is changed from a longitudinal to a transverse layout and its intake/exhaust resistance and combustion efficiency are improved to yield high output across a wide range of engine speeds.

The conventional hydrogen rotary engine has problems of low torque and poor combustion efficiency in the low rev range. The new system overcomes both of these problems and, combined with increased hydrogen capacity, extends the hydrogen-fueled range to about 200km or twice that of the RX-8 Hydrogen RE.