Neighbour regularly gets hire cars from Enterprise for his work to travel down south to visit suppliers.
Today's delivery was a Mazda MX30 R-EV which is a petrol plug in hybrid. Electric range of about 50 miles and a 50 litre fuel tank.
First thing I noticed was the door set up - similar to the BMW i3 the rear doors are suicide doors and will not open unless the front doors are opened first. Why, why why? I cannot see the point in these and I think they would get very infuriating when carrying rear passengers.
The engine set up is strange in that the petrol engine does not drive the wheels but is in fact a generator to charge the batteries to drive the wheels electrically at all times.
Mate drove 180 miles today and it used "about" 3/4 of a tank. According to specs the fuel tank is 50 litres so about 40 litres to drive 180 miles which equates to around 20mpg. Not including anything that was in the batteries when he got it.
I couldnt believe this but a couple of reviews I have seen online back that up. I am wondering if there is a specific way needed to drive this car to get the full benefit of it and whatever that is, my neighbour hasn't driven that way.
The R in the model name actually refers to its Rotary engine - yip Mazda have brought that back from the dead. Interestingly the specs say it is an 800cc Rotary engine but when I ran the hire car through an online checker it said it was 1660cc!
He tells me he loves the driving position and the toys and displays, but glad he is not paying for the fuel himself!
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Rotary engines produce power every revolution so 800cc of displacement is the equivalent of a 1600cc 4-stroke.
Bonkers car from Mazda - they must have been huffing glue in the Boardroom to sign that off.
The regular EV variant has a pretty small battery by today's standards, 35.5kWh gross, and about 30kWh usable, meaning 90-120 miles of range.
The suicide doors mean anyone in the back has a teeny porthole that doesn't open to peer through.
In saying all of that, the huge battery buffer probably means it will hardly degrade, it is apparently an ok car to drive, and it can rapid charge quickly to full.
If you can get by with a short-range EV they are dirt cheap right now...
www.new-car-discount.com/car/mazda/mx-30-electric-hatchback/hatchback/electric/automatic/107kw-prime-line-35.5kwh-5dr-auto/22/
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202405019239041
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Oh yes, forgot to say, the base of the centre console cubbies is..... cork! Again I need to ask - why???
Rest of the console area in his car was black/grey and then the base of the cubbies all were cork - can see it in the autorader link above.
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"The engine set up is strange in that the petrol engine does not drive the wheels but is in fact a generator to charge the batteries to drive the wheels electrically at all times."
Pretty sure that's how my Ampera worked too. I don't think my mpg was ever poor though. The economic way to drive those cars is to only do journeys within your range, which most of mine were :-)
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The Honda CRV & Civic are a similar set-up - there is no direct drive to the wheels.
The petrol engine is a generator that feeds the hybrid battery & feeds the electric motors - no gearbox as it is the motor(s) that drive 2 or 4 wheels.
It all happens automatically. Runs "normal" around town etc but out on the open road the engine potters along and then the revs rise if you start a climb.
Annoying on a longish/steeper climb but normal service returns when the road levels off or descends.
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Ampera's 1.4 litre engine was tuned to be efficient chugging at a certain RPM range.
Mazda may have done similar with their rotary but they are simply not as efficient as reciprocating piston engines - they are very small for their power output, but the MX-30 isn't even a well packaged car.
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In my book there is only one rotary/electric engine that is good. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1scc2h5PflU
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>> Are you having a day out here Zero?
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>> watercressline.co.uk/special-days/diesel-gala/
Apart from the class 43, nothing there floats my boat, plus I dont do toy railways
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Aren’t all preserved railways “toy railways”.?
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>> Aren’t all preserved railways “toy railways”.?
Yes
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>> In my book there is only one rotary/electric engine that is good. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1scc2h5PflU
That wasn't a rotary (do any still run?), it was a delta configured diesel.
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Quite a few Deltics still run but like you my first though was that while pretty complex it was not rotary in the Wankel sense.
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Not being a railway buff, I knew nothing of the Deltic engine.
It's pretty impressive as a highly ingenious design, apparently relatively light and compact for its output, while maintaining accessibility for maintenance. No timing belt or chain, and no camshaft.
I'm not an engineer, but am intrigued by the sheer originality of it and don't understand why it was discontinued.
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>> I'm not an engineer, but am intrigued by the sheer originality of it and don't
>> understand why it was discontinued.
A relatively small fleet, originality is not a good thing when trying to maintain availability hours. They were fairly reliable, heavy users of lubrication oil (Wankel engine weakness parallel) thirsty. Done for by electrification, and the Class 43 (twice the horsepower) 100mph of the deltic just wasnt enough. Ended up being pulled from their sweetspot (4-6 hours runs all at full welly) they became unreliable, so went.
3 remain, one mainline certified. Its a beast, extinct but a beast!
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 23 Jun 24 at 20:14
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>>but the MX-30 isn't even a well packaged car.
Though at about £15k for basically a pre-reg, it's a bit of a bargain for a town runabout.
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>> Though at about £15k for basically a pre-reg, it's a bit of a bargain for
>> a town runabout.
I might think about an MX30 if my 22 year old Japanese barge has serious MOT problems later this year.
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As a Wankel's basically a two-stroke and engine oil used to be injected into the inlet tract to (try and) lubricate the rotor tip (apex) seals and it was advised to add two-stroke oil to the petrol. Anyone know how they're lubricated now, without oil in the exhaust affecting emissions and catalytic converters?
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Today’s hire Car seems to be a plug in hybrid Ford Kuga. A car that I could easily see as being my next car. Enough electric range for my rare running about but petrol engine for longer journeys.
Will be interested to see what the real life economy is with a 2.5 litre petrol engine though!
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>> Today’s hire Car seems to be a plug in hybrid Ford Kuga.
Are you on your holidays?
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Sorry - my neighbour’s work’s hire car !
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I’ve got a Kuga PHEV as a company car. Economy over 58,000 miles has been 115mpg. I do plug it in overnight and at work, so get as much electric mileage in as I can, but even on a long run after the battery has been used up, the economy is very good.
120 miles earlier on in the week achieved 80mpg and a 100 mile drive to London usually nets 90mpg.
Pretty hard to get less than 50mpg even on a longer run.
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That’s impressive on such a big petrol engine and I assume a heavy car!
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Our Sorento PHEV manages ~40mpg over 1000 miles carrying 6 plus luggage down to Southampton and back.
2.2 tonnes (unladen) being lugged by a 1.6 turbo petrol plus EV does pretty well.
In usual duties manages >100mpg as it's plugged it most nights.
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Strange how diverse the PHEV engines are:
Kuga - 2.5 naturally aspirated petrol. Atkinson cycle
Sorrento- 1.6 turbocharged petrol
VAG - 1.5 TSI turbocharged petrol
Merc - used to offer a 2.0 turbo diesel
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Mazda MX30 - Lygonos
