With all that’s happened in the Mazda camp these few months, it’s hard to believe any more that they’re not making a new rotary sports car. Following last week’s news of a hydrogen-powered rotary engine, another Japanese automotive publication, Hatena Blog, has now found eight new Mazda trademark filings to support that rumour – including a new logo and three “e-SkyActiv R” names.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that the logo clearly references the rotors in a rotary engine, and it also resembles the Japanese marque’s rotary logos of its early days, including the Spirit R ones. Mazda also managed to incorporate an ‘e’-letter cutout into the logo, which we presume that it points towards some kind of electrification.
The trademarked names further corroborate our hunch – e-SkyActiv R-Energy, e-SkyActiv R-HEV, and e-SkyActiv R-EV. The “e-SkyActiv” name is in-tune with Mazda’s current branding for their electrified powertrain, and well, the R at the back is pretty self-explanatory.
If we had to guess, the R-HEV is probably destined for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle, with the rotary engine directly powering the wheels in a parallel hybrid set-up, while the R-EV points towards the rotary range extenders, recently confirmed for the Mazda MX-30.
That leaves us with R-Energy, which sounds like a name from an overzealous energy drinks company. We’re kidding, but we still aren’t too sure what to make of it – could it be referencing to an alternative form of energy source (read: fuel), such as Hydrogen?
Of course, the usual disclaimer still applies: a trademark application doesn’t necessarily have to mean anything or turn into an actual product eventually; companies sometimes just trademark things as a placeholder, or to prevent others from having a similar name to what they’re planning to release.
But then again, with that much smoke, there must be a fire; with that many rumours swirling about the very same topic within such a short timeframe, it seems more than likely that Mazda is actually working on a rotary engine and/or a sporty coupe. We can’t wait to see what actually comes out!
As for the other four trademark applications, Hatena Blog thinks that they’re just trim names to be applied to JDM models: ‘Field Journey’ and ‘Sports Appearance’ for the Mazda CX-5, ‘VS Terracotta Selection’ for the MX-5 Roadster RF (in addition to the existing VS White Selection), and a ‘Pro-X Ross Style’ that’s stumped most journalists online.
[source: Hatena Blog via AutoBlog]
