To survive in progressive auto world, the Mazda corporation try to manufacture only best dsignt and quality cars. But can it survive the transition to more environmentally-friendly powertrain technology?

2007 Mazda Premacy HRE Concept

This question will be the key point in this year Motor show in Tokyo. The Taiki concept sports car takes the green theme to a design extreme, while the Premacy HRE Hybrid shows a more practical side to the automaker’s thinking.

The car show will start out with a conventional Premacy (Mazda5), which using an everyday piston engine, substituted a hydrogen-powered rotary engine, or HRE. Its energy, in turn, is wired into an advanced, lithium-ion battery pack that’s used to power a set of electric motors.

This so-called serial hybrid approach is similar in concept to the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid that made a splash at the Detroit Motor Show, last January, though Mazda isn’t saying whether it would provide enough batteries to run the Premacy HRE in pure electric mode.

2007 Mazda Premacy HRE Concept 2007 Mazda Premacy HRE Concept 2007 Mazda Premacy HRE Concept

Since the rotary operates at lower temperatures than a piston engine, for one thing, it is less likely to produce smog-causing NOx as an unintended by-product of combustion.

The hybrid design, meanwhile, doubles the range of the hydrogen rotary system, to 200 km, or 125 miles, noted Mazda CEO Hisakazu Imaki.

Next year, Mazda intends to begin a limited leasing program, to get real-world experience with the Premacy HRE.