I found this today!

Audi Resurrects the Rotary Engine
It could Extend the E-REV's Range
From the November, 2010 issue of Motor Trend / By Paul Horrell
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Audi is looking at an unusual engine for an E-REV. It is testing prototypes of its A1 subcompact with an electric drivetrain and a Wankel rotary range extender. "We will start a pilot project at the end of the year," Michael Dick, head of research and development, told us. "The first prototype car is running very well at the moment. We hope to make a small series at the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013."
Apart from Mazda, Audi's predecessor brand NSU was one of the very few companies to mass-market a rotary-engine car, the brilliant and elegant -- if unreliable -- NSU Ro80.
Audi's e-tron EV department is developing the new car, as it works on the e-tron all-electric supercar. Audi unveiled an A1 rotary-extended electric at the Geneva show last March, claiming that under electric propulsion it has a range of more than 31 miles in city traffic. The electric power is 102 horses, which ought to give decent performance in such a small car.
The single-rotor Wankel is exceptionally compact and smooth running. Because it can run at near-constant rpm in this configuration, it avoids the emissions issues that have plagued rotaries. In the A1 e-tron it charges the battery at 15kW, or 20 horses -- enough for fluctuating demand in city driving but obviously insufficient for sustained high-speed running.
"It is a big favorite for me personally, this concept, because it works perfectly with this city car," Dick says. "We have the full space, it remains a four-seater, and it has full space in the trunk. It's designed to drive pure electric, but this takes the fear away from people of losing power when they are driving. The range extender is like the auxiliary engine in a sailboat. If there is no wind, then you motor in to your harbor."


Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/features/a...#ixzz1LoZ1mECK

 

Hmmm. I fell like I have read this before, but I like it. If you made a rotary to do a small range of RPM you could tune the ports and intake perfectly, possibly making it efficient. Excited to see where this goes.

 

Cool but this isn't really news. Article is dated November 2010. This has been thoroughly discussed already on rx7 and rx8club.

 

I agree. I remember reading about this a long time ago, but its good for people who havent seen it I suppose.

~T.J.

 

lol i love the idiots who commented on that site. all about mazda having "limited success" with the rotary. if it was soo limited, then why continue making them?

 

-only thing is its an electric car with a rotary to produce current. neat though

 

Because they used to have them in nearly every car they sold and now they don't?

 

What? Only the RX-7 line up and the pickup had rotaries to my knowledge. Mazda has made, and continues to make, thousands of cars and only a very small percentage have ever had rotary engines.