Mazda has confirmed its much-anticipated range-extender MX-30 SUV will launch on the European market this spring, including in the UK.

Mazda says its rotary engines have been “reborn for the electric age”

The new MX-30 R-EV will be revealed at the Brussels Motor Show this coming Friday (13 January) and will draw on the carmaker’s longstanding heritage in rotary engines, “reborn for the electric age”.

As with the former BMW i3 Range Extender, the new arrival to the Mazda line-up will use an internal combustion engine to generate power for the electric motor and effectively increase the vehicle’s driving range, rather than actually driving the wheels direct. But in the MX-30’s case this will be a newly developed rotary engine.

It’s expected to double the official 124-mile (200km) range of the MX-30 BEV, significantly broadening its appeal and its functionality for fleets, while also conferring significant tax savings compared to combustion-engined cars.

While Mazda is not the only brand to dabble in rotary engines, the carmaker justly claims that its engineers took Felix Wankel’s unique engine design concept to commercial success and kept it in production for nearly five decades.

Benefits of such technology include smooth, high-revving performance and high power-to-weight ratio, compared to conventional piston engines.

However, issues with fuel efficiency and emissions led to its demise and the Wankel engine was last used in the RX-8, which stopped production in 2012.

Mazda openly talked about reviving the technology in 2018 for use in a range-extender model to accompany a vehicle solely powered by a battery. The MX-30 SUV, which launched in 2020, had been designed from the outset for a small rotary engine to be fitted under the bonnet, but plans had been on hold, due to a variety of reasons.

The MX-30 R-EV is described as being “faithful” to the carmaker’s multi-solution approach to the global challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions; Mazda has long said there is no one solution that fits all when it comes to vehicles and powertrains and it’s embracing innovation across powertrain technologies, from combustion engines to PHEVs and hybrids to fully electric vehicles, supporting its commitment to carbon neutrality in all its operations by 2050. The brand has also long been rumoured to be working on a hydrogen-burning rotary engine.

In November last year, Mazda announced plans to invest $10.6bn (£8.9bn) into electric vehicles, accelerating the electrification of its fleet through new partnerships. It’s now looking for some 40% of its global sales to made up of electric vehicles by 2030; increased from 25%.

The new MX-30 R-EV will be unveiled on the Mazda stand at Brussels at 10:00 CET this Friday.

Other new launches on the horizon include the CX-60 and CX-80 plug-in hybrid SUVs, which will arrive in Europe over the next two years, bringing five- and seven-seater formats respectively and forming part of the brand’s large product group.