What do Elvis fans and Mazda RX-7/8 fans have in common? Many of them just can’t accept the fact that their favorite thing has left the building for good. This includes media outlets far and wide, as we reported earlier this year. Now according to a story in Automotive News, Mazda CEO Masamichi Kogai says he has no intention of bringing back the RX sports-car series, period.
Kogai said he’d prefer to spend the company’s limited resources on other priorities and that Mazda’s seven-vehicle lineup is “almost stretched to its max,” according to the report. “It’s difficult for us at present to further expand our lineup,” Kogai told Automotive News. “The company is still in the process of improving its financial structure. We want to focus our limited resources on the Skyactiv products that we have today.” The company also apparently sees opportunities to grow the brand in more cost-effective ways than an all-new model, which means simple variations like the rumored 6 coupe.
Importantly, the report does not say that the rotary engine is dead, only the RX sports cars. There was some exploratory work performed as far back as a decade ago on a rotary that could burn either hydrogen or gasoline, and a tweet posted three years ago indicated that Mazda is committed to putting the rotary in new cars. However, much of that rotary-engine chatter took place before Kogai took the helm of Mazda last year, and the current state of rotary affairs remains unknown.
