In a bid to boost its image, Mazda Motor Corp. next month will release the RX-8 sports car, its first rotary engine model in 12 years, the company announced Wednesday.
"This is the soul of the Mazda brand," Mazda President Lewis Booth said.
The new model should help the firm attract more customers to its showrooms at a time when the Iraq war is taking a toll on the automobile market, he said.
The Hiroshima-based carmaker will begin selling the model in Europe and the United States in the summer. It hopes to sell 60,000 worldwide in a year, including about 30,000 in the U.S. and 12,000 in Japan.
The carmaker said it has received about 5,000 advance orders for the car via the Internet since January. The RX-8 is priced between 2.4 million yen and 2.75 million yen in Japan.
Mazda is the only carmaker in the world that mass-produces rotary engines, which it has been making since 1967. Smaller rotary engines can generate comparatively more power than conventional reciprocating engines.
The previous model, the RX-7, was introduced in 1991. Production was suspended last August after the vehicle failed to meet exhaust gas emission regulations.
