Mazda will use Tesla’s North American Charging Customary (NACS) connector for future EVs, however continues to be investing in improvement of a brand new technology of its signature rotary engines.
The automaker introduced Tuesday that it might undertake the NACS connector for EVs launched in North America from 2025 onward, and can give prospects entry to the Tesla Supercharger community. Mazda’s North American EV plans are obscure, however a 2023 report indicated the automaker was getting ready two EVs for North America, and will construct future EVs in Mexico.
Only a few days earlier, Mazda president Katsuhiro Mogo introduced on the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon that the automaker would restart rotary engine improvement, launching a brand new improvement group Feb. 1, Japanese publication Automotive Media Response reported.
Rotary engine
Sports activities automobiles just like the RX-7 have made the identify Mazda synonymous with Wankel rotary engines, which use a triangular spinning rotor as a substitute of a piston to harness the power of combustion. Nevertheless, Mazda ended manufacturing of typical rotary engines in 2012.
Since then, the one rotary engine launched by Mazda has been a single-rotor vary extender in a model of the MX-30 crossover—which has now been minimize from the U.S. lineup.
Different rotary-engine improvement had led to 2018, in keeping with the report, which indicated that constructive response to the Mazda Iconic SP rotary-engined hybrid sports activities automobile idea unveiled final October could have been an element within the resolution to create a brand new rotary-engine improvement group.
![Mazda Iconic SP concept Mazda Iconic SP concept](https://images.hgmsites.net/lrg/mazda-iconic-sp-concept_100903671_l.webp)
Mazda Iconic SP idea
The twin bulletins of NACS adoption and rotary-engine improvement are typical of the combined indicators popping out of Mazda for the previous few years. In 2022, the automaker stated it was concentrating on 40% EV gross sales by 2030, on a worldwide scale. However final yr Mazda’s U.S. boss stated longer-range EVs aren’t the longer term.
So maybe Mazda’s future plans embody shorter-range EVs bought alongside internal-combustion automobiles—with maybe a few of these rotary-powered.