Mazda 5 hydrogen rotary hybrid comes to Beijing

Shanghai, November 13 (Gasgoo.com) Japanese carmaker Mazda Motor has developed an eco-friendly car model powered by pure electricity from a hydrogen fuel-driven generator, and can be also driven by gas fuel. Now the Mazda 5 hydrogen rotary hybrid has come to make its China debut at the "2008 Beijing Mazda Eco-friendly Technology Forum” this week.

This fascinating gas/hydrogen-powered rotary hybrid car can seat five people, with 230-liter storage space, and can run 200 km on one hydrogen charging. It can reach the peak power of 110kW, an increase of 40% over its conventional predecessor's power. As the Mazda 5 can run either on hydrogen or gasoline--just like the dual-fuel Mazda RX-8, you can switch between the two using a small button on the dash.

Mazda's idea with this new-energy powered Mazda 5 is to expand the range of its models in which a hydrogen rotary can be potentially used, and this car is a better fit than the RX-8 for the bi-fuel hardware because of its larger size; the hydrogen tank fills up nearly all of the RX-8's small trunk.

The "2008 Beijing Mazda Eco-friendly Technology Forum" was held in Beijing on November 11. At the forum, Mazda Motor presented its vision for sustainable development of earth environment and transportation environment. Meanwhile, the company's technicians demonstrated the latest results of their research on the "future power system," "light quantitative technology" and "hydrogen auto technology."