What powers your dream Mazda Iconic SP?

The iconic SP concept features battery power and a rotary range extender, but is this the new RX-7 you want?

Mazda isn’t just teasing us. Now, we know from comments from the Japanese automaker’s head of design that last year’s Iconic SP concept, or some form of the car, will be making its way to showrooms.

Zhongshan Zhengshi didn’t give an estimated arrival time for the car, choosing instead to keep us guessing, saying it will enter production in the “near future.” This sentence is open to interpretation, but we think it means it will be available in three years.

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But what kind of powertrain do you think it will have? If you were leading an engineering team, would you choose the same powertrain? The iconic SP concept brought Mazda’s rotary technology back into the spotlight, but unlike the later, great RX-7, the SP didn’t use rotary power to drive the wheels directly. Instead, a twin-rotor internal combustion engine charges a battery pack that drives the wheels, somewhat like the setup on the Mazda range-extender MX-30.

Mazda claims the electric motor produces a relatively modest (by performance EV standards) 365 hp (272 kW / 370 PS) and that the rotary engine can run on carbon-neutral fuel, reducing emissions by up to 90%. The automaker also confirmed that the powertrain is more than just auto show glitz, telling us that the rotary-powered project will be available once “technical hurdles” are overcome.

Rotary engines seem to be a good choice for range extenders because they spin smoothly – Audi showed off such a range extender concept in 2011, the A1 E-Tron. But in our opinion, traditional Mazda fans hoping for an RX-7 that feels like the old one will be disappointed by the fact that it’s essentially an electric car with a rotating generator.

We’re guessing many of you would like to see Mazda completely reverse this idea and produce a sports car with the wheels driven directly by the rotary engine, but with hybrid electric assistance to help produce more torque and reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Or maybe you’d like to see something completely different under the SP’s hood – although seeing how low it is, your combustion options may be limited to boxer engines.

This all assumes Mazda brings the SP to market as a modern interpretation of the discontinued RX-7 in 2002. But another possibility is that SP gave us a sneak peek at the styling of the next-generation MX-5. While the MX-5 is unlikely to go the electric route and will almost certainly move to hybrid, the lower power figures make sense. In this case, the range-extender rotary engine might appear in a completely different car.

But this is all speculation. What we know for sure is that Mazda will sell a car that looks like the Iconic SP, and here’s what we know think Knowing is something you think should be going on behind the scenes. Please comment below and tell us what you think.