Audi is searching at an unusual engine for an E-REV. It can be testing prototypes of its A1 subcompact with an electric drivetrain and a Wankel rotary range extender. "We will start a pilot project for the finish in the year," Michael Dick, head of research and development, told us. "The 1st prototype car or truck is running extremely well for the moment. We hope to make a smaller series on the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013."
Apart from Mazda, Audi's predecessor brand NSU was 1 in the extremely few businesses to mass-market a rotary-engine car or truck, the brilliant and elegant -- if unreliable -- NSU Ro80.
Audi's e-tron EV department is creating the new car, as it performs on the e-tron all-electric supercar. Audi unveiled an A1 rotary-extended electric with the Geneva show final March, claiming that underneath electric propulsion it has a range of far more than 31 miles in metropolis visitors. The electric power is 102 horses, which ought to give decent performance in such a little vehicle.
The single-rotor Wankel is exceptionally compact and smooth running. Since it can run at near-constant rpm in this configuration, it avoids the emissions issues that have plagued rotaries. Inside the A1 e-tron it charges the battery at 15kW, or 20 horses -- adequate for fluctuating demand in city driving but clearly insufficient for sustained high-speed working.
"It can be a large favorite for me personally, this concept, since it performs perfectly with this city car," Dick says. "We have the full room, it remains a four-seater, and it has complete area from the trunk. It is created to drive pure electrical, but this takes the fear away from individuals of losing energy when they're driving. The range extender is like the auxiliary engine in a sailboat. If there's no wind, then you motor in to your harbor."
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