Mazda Bringing RX Vision Successor To Tokyo, Will Probably Be Rotary-Powered

The whole will they, won’t they thing with Mazda and a production version of the RX Vision looks set to continue.

Speaking to Auto Express, Matsuhiro Tanaka, Mazda’s R&D head in Europe, confirmed that a successor is indeed in the works, and strongly hinted that it’s to be followed up by a production car. “With the Tokyo Motor Show we will be introducing a new design concept - you can think of it as an evolution of theme of the RX Vision…When we introduce a concept our intention from the engineering and design community is to make it a reality,” he said.

Just to hammer home the point further, Tanaka-san added that Mazda is “making the utmost efforts to try and make this a possibility.” It’s rather hard not to get excited by such rhetoric, particularly when it’s been reported previously that there won’t be a Mazda coupe larger than the MX-5, rotary or otherwise.

And that leads us to the biggest question of all surrounding the project: will it have a rotary engine? We found out a couple of weeks ago that Mazda is actually working on a rotary engine despite previous rumours to the contrary, but significant challenges remain for putting it into production, mostly related to emissions. But for the new concept? We’d expect the rotary ethos of the original RX Vision to remain, perhaps with some hybrid technology in the mix.

We’ve only a few weeks to wait until we find out…