Mazda Expands Market for Hydrogen-Powered RX-8 RE

Hydrogen and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles have recently gained momentum from automakers as the next step in fuel-efficient vehicle designs. With Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda and Toyota Motor Corporation have all introduced hydrogen-powered vehicles either as prototypes or low-production models, and now Mazda Motor Corporation is joining the group with its hydrogen-powered, rotary-engine RX-8 Hydrogen RE. While the RX-8 Hydrogen RE has been available for lease in Japan since 2006 in limited numbers, Mazda announced that it will begin offering the fuel-efficient sports coupe for lease in Norway starting this summer. Unlike hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, cars like the RX-8 Hydrogen RE internally combusts the hydrogen fuel directly instead of using hydrogen fuel to indirectly produce electricity to power electric motors.

The new RX-8 Hydrogen RE is designed to run on either gasoline or hydrogen fuel to improve the overall fuel economy and reduce the car’s emissions. Initially, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE will only be available in Japan (right-hand drive) and Norway (left-hand drive), but the car could easily spread to other markets (including North America) as technology and usage of hydrogen fuel becomes more mainstream. Except for its dual fuel capabilities, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE is basically the same as a stock RX-8. Other than the obvious paint job touting the car’s alternative fuel capabilities, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE differs from the stock car by the lack of truck space. A stock RX-8 trunk is small enough, but the RX-8 Hydrogen RE fills up the cargo hold with a pair of hydrogen fuel tanks that are pressurized at more than 5,000 pounds per square inch (PSI).

Under the hood, the hydrogen-powered RX-8 uses the same rotary RENESIS engine available in all RX-8s, but instead of the six-speed manual and automatic transmissions of the regular RX-8, the RE model uses a specific four-speed automatic transmission. In hydrogen mode, the RX-8 operates as a zero emissions vehicle which makes it one of the few (along with cars like the Tesla Roadster) ZEV performance vehicles in existence. With the ability to run independently on either gasoline or hydrogen fuel, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE has a range of about 62 miles on hydrogen fuel alone and about 341 miles on gasoline. If running on hydrogen and the fuel runs out, the system automatically switches over to gasoline to power the rotary, but the driver can manually switch from hydrogen to gasoline by using a rotary-shaped button on the dash even while the vehicle is in motion. To switch from gasoline to hydrogen power, however, the vehicle must be at a complete stop. Letting the driver know which mode the system is in, there is a driver interface integrated into the instrument cluster and the fuel switch also illuminates blue when in hydrogen mode.