HYBRID IN THE ROTARY CLUB
MAZDA MX-30 R-EV IS PACKING SOME UNIQUE TECH UNDER ITS BONNET
THIS used to be part of the ritual but I can’t recall the last time I did it. Lifting the bonnet, I mean. In the past you’d open it to have a gander, especially if the engine was Italian, which was usually a thing of beauty.
Here we’re going to look under the bonnet of the new Mazda MX-30 R-EV, not because I’m expecting to see the work of Michelangelo, but because it’s fun to have a poke around.
Mazda likes to do things differently and the MX-30 R-EV is a perfect example of this. Under the floor of the car is a 17.8kWh battery. This provides juice for a 168bhp electric motor that drives the car’s front wheels.
You’re expecting this car to be a plug-in hybrid since the battery’s too small for it to be a pure EV, right?
Wrong. This Mazda has a powertrain we haven’t seen since the Vauxhall Ampera and BMW i3 REx.
Like those cars, the Mazda has a small petrol engine that works as a range extender by charging the battery. This engine is also remote from the wheels and never turns them. The battery gives the MX-30 R-EV an electric range on the WLTP cycle of 53 miles.
The petrol engine is supplied from a 50-litre tank. By using the engine to keep the battery charged, you have a total range of 423 miles.
So if this trick has been done before why am I excited about looking at the Mazda’s oily bits?
Well, the firm is famous for its use of the rotary, or Wankel, engine which powered RX-7 sports cars, and most recently the RX-8.
Mazda has developed a singlerotor rotary engine for this car that is compact and light. It displaces 830cc and puts out 74bhp which seems a lot for the job of running a generator.
Now for the under-the-bonnet view. There’s a large inverter unit that sits on top of the electric motor/ generator unit.
At the end of this, on the right as you’re looking in, is the petrol engine. It’s so compact and hidden you can hardly see it.
There are three driving modes in the MX-30 R-EV: EV, which is self explanatory; Charge, which is also obvious, and Normal. In Normal, the engine maintains the battery level at 45 per cent. When running in Charge you choose your target level in increments of 10 per cent.
Rather than have the petrol engine run at constant revolutions and simply cutting in and out, it revs to roughly match your accelerator inputs so that the whole driving experience feels very normal. The engine is unobtrusive and quiet which is what you want.
We’ve already tested a straightforward BEV Mazda MX-30. Mazda’s philosophy with that car was to give it a relatively small battery to keep the weight down to make it better to drive than other electric crossovers, and live with the lower range.
A worthy plan but, unfortunately, although the car is good to drive, few customers want an EV with a maximum range of only 124 miles.
The R-EV version of the MX-30 is 131kg heavier but still OK to drive.
To get the best out of this car, charge the battery using a 7.2kW home charger in 90 minutes.
If you do this and then go on a long journey, you’ll be able to record some impressive fuel consumption of up to 90mpg. We found on our test, with the battery down at about 60 per cent, we were getting just over 50mpg. What you don’t want to do is run the car in Charge mode for a long distance because you’ll be doing more like 30mpg.
You can think of the MX-30 R-EV as a plug-in hybrid but more clever.
Our top-of-the-range Makoto costs £35,550. The entry-level Prime Line version is £31,250, which is good value for a good-looking crossover that contains rather interesting technology.