Rotor technology or return, can Mazda spend tens of billions of dollars to accelerate electrification？

At the end of November, Mazda announced its production and sales in October. Like other Japanese brands, Mazda’s global production and sales in October achieved positive growth year-on-year, with sales of 94,971 vehicles, up 9.2% year-on-year.

In late November, Mazda not only heard the good news that sales were warming up, but also announced its electrification plan. Mazda’s updated medium-term business plan and basic business policy for 2030 show that Mazda plans to invest 1.5 trillion yen (about 10.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the electrification process in conjunction with many suppliers by 2030, and equip all its vehicles with electrification technology by 2030. Pure electric vehicles account for about 25% to 40% of its global sales. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time Mazda has made a clear timetable for the electrification process.

Mazda 2030 electrification strategy is divided into three stages. In the first stage, Mazda will make full use of the existing multi-path electrification technology to produce products; In the second stage, Mazda will launch a new hybrid system, and at the same time launch exclusive pure electric vehicles in the China market with high-speed penetration of electrification, and gradually launch pure electric vehicles around the world; In the third stage, Mazda will start to fully launch the exclusive model of pure electric platform, and consider strengthening investment in battery production.

Mazda 2030 strategic time point. Figure/car company official website

In the industry’s view, Mazda’s clear goal of electrification transformation is an inevitable choice under the changes of industries such as the upgrading of environmental protection laws and regulations in various countries and the rapid transformation of the new four modernizations. Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said that under the background that the global electrification transformation is accelerating and new energy vehicles are eroding the market share of traditional fuel vehicles, Mazda can only avoid further market share grabbing by promoting electrification transformation. Mazda President Marubeni also said with emotion, "The demand for pure electric vehicles is stronger than previously expected."

Mazda further emphasized the importance of having a variety of solutions, including internal combustion engines, electrification technologies and alternative fuels, and said that it would take hybrid as the breakthrough point. It is worth mentioning that Mazda 2030 strategy reveals or will "resurrect" rotor technology. Mazda said that it will use multi-path electrification technology to build products. The industry believes that this means that Mazda will launch a rotor range extender. In fact, Mazda has repeatedly publicly stated that it is waiting for a suitable opportunity to restart the rotor technology, and as early as 2017, Mazda has registered the technical patent of the rotor extended-range hybrid system; A few days ago, Mazda said that it will release the MX-30 R-EV extended range hybrid version at the Brussels Motor Show in Belgium in January 2023, which will use a rotary engine as the range extender.

Mazda’s rotary engine technology dates back to 1961. The rotor engine can improve power and torque through design, and at the same time, because the overall structure of the rotor engine is small, it will not occupy too much space; In addition, the vibration and noise of the rotary engine are much less than those of the piston engine, so it can achieve high speed with its unique single cavity structure. However, there are obvious disadvantages. High-intensity rotation makes the rotary engine wear seriously, and its service life is short. Moreover, due to the inability to achieve a high compression ratio, fuel combustion is very inadequate, resulting in substandard emissions and high fuel consumption.

The mechanical structure, space design and operation mode of Mazda’s "resurrection" rotor range extender are its advantages; At the same time, Mazda also needs to consider how to avoid the high fuel consumption of rotary engines. Mazda will be the only company withCar companies equipped with hybrid vehicles with rotary engines have also become their advantages in the new energy vehicle market; But the industry believes that,Mazda’s electrification transformation needs fundamental innovation. Zhang Xiang said that Mazda needs to reverse the inferior situation of brand influence.System forceCarry out reforms.

Mazda said that the second phase will launch exclusive electric vehicles in the China market. The industry believes that this means that Mazda has paid more attention to the China market.

Mazda’s sales in China market continued to decline in 2018, and the annual sales volume in 2021 was 183,900. Due to the lack of business scale, Mazda’s joint venture company in China has also changed. In 2021, North and South Mazda merged; Mazda China said that the merger is conducive to the integration of resources to promote the long-term and sustainable development of Mazda brand business. However, Mazda’s sales in China have not changed significantly. In the first 10 months of this year, the cumulative sales volume of Changan Mazda was 91,941 units, down over 17% year-on-year.

The industry believes that the merger of North and South Mazda actually means that Mazda has taken an important step in the development of China market, but the fundamental problems of Mazda are not solved by the merger.

Ren Wanfu, an auto industry analyst, said that Mazda’s unfavorable performance in China market is closely related to its own strategic layout in China, in addition to fierce competition. Mazda has long been criticized for its slow introduction of products in China market, aging product line and lack of new models. Take 2021 as an example, Changan Mazda has only one electric vehicle listed in the whole year. He further stated that under the wave of the global automobile industry’s transformation to electrification, Mazda’s electrification pace is slow.

According to Mazda’s plan, the second phase will launch exclusive electric vehicles in the China market; However, it is worth noting that Mazda did not put forward a clear time point. According to the current competitive situation in China’s new energy automobile market, independent brands are making full efforts, and traditional automobile giants are fighting back. Mazda is facing a lot of competitive pressure. Zhang Xiang believes that for Mazda, it is necessary to further fill the shortcomings in terms of new car research and development progress, marketing and channels.completeGuochengCui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the Car Market Information Association, believes that,Software intelligence is also the key to the development of new energy vehicles in the future, and Mazda also needs to work hard on intelligence.

Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Wang Linlin

Editor Xu Chao　

Proofread Liu Jun