Mazda teases new Imaginative and prescient idea, however will it herald a born-again RX rotary sports activities automobile?
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Mazda has introduced it is going to reveal a brand new ‘Imaginative and prescient‘ idea automobile on the 2025 Tokyo motor present – now referred to as the Japan Mobility Present – later this month, elevating hopes it might preview a long-lamented successor for hallowed rotary-powered sports activities vehicles just like the RX-7 and RX-8.
A single, cropped teaser picture (pictured above) was issued at the moment, revealing the sweeping roofline of what seems to be a coupe-like sedan (as evidenced by the four-door design you’ll be able to see extra clearly within the picture we’ve lightened under), together with an announcement confirming Mazda will unveil the brand new idea in Tokyo on October 29.
Within the assertion, the Japanese automaker described the present automobile as “representing the imaginative and prescient for future Mazda automobiles” with out declaring it a preview of a manufacturing mannequin of any form.
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Followers of rotary-powered Mazda coupes have been left within the chilly because the RX-7 was discontinued in 2002, earlier than the four-door RX-8 got here and glided by 2012.
However they got hope most not too long ago by a report claiming a brand new rotary engine at present in growth might attain manufacturing by 2026, and earlier than that in 2023 when Mazda revealed the glossy 2+2-seat Iconic SP coupe idea, full with a pair of scissor doorways.
On the time, it was described by Mazda’s chief technical officer as “a superb successor to the RX-7” and since then a number of Mazda executives have expressed their need for the Iconic SP to enter manufacturing.
Nonetheless, somewhat than a rotary engine driving the rear wheels – as within the RX-7 and RX-8, and each rotary-powered, RX-badged Mazda earlier than them – the Iconic SP was powered by a 270kW extended-range electrical car (EREV) drivetrain, together with a rotary engine that operated solely as a generator for the battery pack, which in flip powered an electrical motor.
A model of the EREV powertrain was fitted to the Mazda MX-30 R-EV, which was not offered in Australia, the place solely mild-hybrid and all-electric variations of the small SUV had been made out there between 2021 and 2023.
On the reveal of the Iconic SP, Mazda mentioned it could additionally produce a model wherein the rotary engine powers the wheels.
As you’ll be able to see from the photographs above, the 2025 Imaginative and prescient has a fair narrower facet window opening, a thicker C-pillar (behind the rear doorways), and a extra dramatically rising rear belt line than the Iconic SP coupe.
Though it’s troublesome to make out far more than that from the teaser picture, there look like head restraints on a pair of entrance seats – suggesting a 2+2-seat format just like the Iconic SP.
The rear windscreen additionally seems prefer it covers an unlimited tailgate space that would kind a liftback design, which is vaguely comparable however removed from an identical to the 2023 idea.
Whether it is certainly a four-door with a coupe-like roofline, it will echo the RX-8 however received’t function rear-hinged ‘freestyle’ rear doorways, given what look like door handles on the rear of the rear doorways.
In the identical assertion at the moment, Mazda mentioned it will present “proprietary CO2 seize know-how” in addition to “carbon-neutral” gas on the Tokyo present, suggesting it’s engaged on functions for low-emission gas in combustion engines.
Mazda beforehand mentioned the Iconic SP’s EREV powertrain might run on a wide range of fuels, so this factors in direction of a possible rotary comeback with the assistance of not less than partly reneweable fuels.
Individually, current stories out of Japan counsel Toyota will faucet Mazda as an alternative of its earlier accomplice Subaru to assist develop its next-generation GR86 sports activities coupe, doubtlessly utilizing the underpinnings of the smaller Japanese automaker’s MX-5 roadster.
Mazda will even use the Tokyo present to disclose the European-spec model of its all-important next-generation CX-5 mid-size SUV in public for the primary time, forward of its arrival in Australian showrooms in 2026.
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