The CEO of Mazda, Masamichi Kogai, during an interview, he revealed that the perspectives of returning the brand to rotary engines are too difficult.
There are no plans at this time. You must be commercially viable proposition. If the adoption should be a product that will sell at least 100,000 pieces a year. We must be able to achieve profit.
Said Kogai speaking to Automotive News. Please remember that the Kogai took the reins of Mazda in June, after a highly successful tenure in the construction sector of the company. This is a man with a past to reduce costs has put aim to transform the Mazda of loss-making enterprises in formidable exporter will generate profits by taking advantage of the weak Yen. It is even so optimistic, providing record sales for the Japanese manufacturer in America, believing that I managed to sell 400,000 cars a year by March 2016. If successful, it will set the record sales of Mazda in the U.S. is 379,883 vehicles from very distant 1986. Unfortunately, the plan does not include model rotary engine.
Do not despair though, and do not blame Kogai. The engineers of the company continue to experiment and evolve the technology and not excluded utilization sometime in the future, especially considering the given flexibility of the engine on the fuel used (gasoline, hydrogen or even kerosene).
We are the first and only manufacturer traded by the rotary engine and in this sense we have an obligation. Let us therefore continue research.
Said Kogai closing.
