SOURCE: http://blog.caranddriver.com/

Audi is looking at the rotary engine, fitting a Wankel powerplant to the A1 e-tron concept shown in Geneva in March. The one-disc rotary engine was co-developed with Austrian engineering house AVL. Car&Driver experienced its operation, and it’s smooth and quiet and avoids the shuddering on restart of a piston engine. Who wants to be disturbed as they’re humming and singing and smiling while depleting their electric-vehicle’s batteries? Not the Car&Driver folks. It’s certainly nice, but C&D next question was whether we could see a powerful rotary-engined Audi without all the electric-motor wizardry. Not a chance, says Ingolstadt. Pity.

Here, a tiny, 0.25-liter Wankel rotary gas engine—mounted in the rear of the car will hum at a constant 5000 rpm to generate electricity and recharge the batteries, extending the car’s range by another 124 miles per tank. A regenerative braking system can also feed energy back into the system, while the range extender can be switched on and off at will by the driver.