Our sources in China have informed us, via coded telegraph, that Chang’an Mazda, the joint venture between China and Changan Automobile, is planning a “rotary announcement in six days.” Could this be the introduction of Mazda’s planned rotary range-extender engines for electric cars? The picture shows an original Mazda Cosmo, but I think it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing an all-new Cosmo. But maybe?


Whatever will be announced in six days, we know that it will be one of the “first cars of the Mazda 7th Generation Cluster” because it says so right on this graphic that Chang’an Mazda put up on Chinese social media:


The post showed up on Mazda’s official Weibo account, and the countdown seems to have begun on September 20th, so we’re at least four days in. The Tokyo Auto Show is only a month away, too, which could mean a big announcement and not just something about their refreshed 2020 lineup?

Also, the blatant rotary references have to mean something, right?

As far as what those other characters mean on the poster, this is how my Google Translate app translated it:

That sounded sort of, uh, weird, so I asked our own Kristen Lee, who knows some Chinese, to take a stab at translating.

Here’s what she told me:

You got it right, it means The magic of dreams turns circles Love you to the night and day the lighter gray text talks about how the rotary engine makes the world more stunning/amazing the last line is confusing, i THINK it says “after six days, see... the next generation? that’s the only one that’s giving me trouble

So, huh, I guess that’s what this means. A dream of magic turn circle is something we can all relate to, of course, and yeah, who doesn’t want to love you love to the night during the day? I mean, what else do you want out of a car?


I also agree that rotary engines do make the world more beautiful. Maybe that’s what’s referred to by “magic turn circle?” The mostly-circular rotary motion?

My guess is that we will see a Mazda EV with a rotary range extender, just as they’ve been planning for 2020. And it’ll have a magic turning circle.


(Thanks to Sonoda Kotori!)