4 ms·

Or a prius prime, if you want something reliable. Wankel engines are pretty notorious for burning oil

• fiddlerwoaroof 5y ago
  That’s not “unreliable”, that’s how the engine is designed.
• EricE 5y ago
  That oil burning happens as the engine RPMs change. No engine RPM changing when coupled with a generator. Use as a range extender is perfect for a rotary where it's power to weight ratio smashes all other ICE designs. Far fewer moving parts too. The only things that really gave a hassle with rotary engines were the seals and this isn't the 80's any more either. I always wanted an RX-7 and had many friends who did. I'd rather change seals in a rotary than a timing belt!
  • wlesieutre 5y ago
    Even if it can't overcome the rotary's efficiency limits compared to piston engines, it's small and smooth and only used a small portion of the time for long trips. If a bigger/heavier engine could charge the battery more efficiently, but you only use it 1% of the time and the other 99% of daily commutes you're draining your battery to carry a bigger engine around, is it really more efficient? Hopefully someone at Mazda has run those numbers and they figured that for a range extender, this was the best solution.
  • SECProto 5y ago
    My only experience was a friend who owned an RX7 - incredibly fuel inefficient, burned a pint of oil every second tank, had to spend a few thousand on repairs when it had around 60k km on it. Has Mazda improved their design or manufacturing in the last 20 years? Probably. Would I trust it even if someone gifted it to me? Not a chance.