Audi is searching at an unusual engine for an E-REV. It truly is testing prototypes of its A1 subcompact with an electrical drivetrain and a Wankel rotary variety extender. "We will commence a pilot project on the end of your year," Michael Dick, head of study and development, told us. "The first prototype auto is working incredibly well for the moment. We hope to make a little series at the stop of 2012 or the beginning of 2013."
Apart from Mazda, Audi's predecessor brand NSU was one of your extremely couple of companies to mass-market a rotary-engine automotive, the brilliant and elegant -- if unreliable -- NSU Ro80.
Audi's e-tron EV department is creating the new vehicle, as it functions on the e-tron all-electric supercar. Audi unveiled an A1 rotary-extended electric on the Geneva show final March, claiming that below electrical propulsion it has a assortment 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 car.
The single-rotor Wankel is exceptionally compact and smooth working. Because it can run at near-constant rpm in this configuration, it avoids the emissions problems that have plagued rotaries. Within the A1 e-tron it charges the battery at 15kW, or 20 horses -- sufficient for fluctuating demand in metropolis driving but clearly insufficient for sustained high-speed working.
"It is really a major favorite for me personally, this idea, because it works perfectly with this city car," Dick says. "We have the complete space, it remains a four-seater, and it has complete space inside trunk. It's created to drive pure electrical, but this takes the concern away from people of losing energy when they are driving. The vary extender is like the auxiliary engine in a sailboat. If there is no wind, then you motor in to your harbor."
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