Looks like VW is starting to question its all diesel strategy. Perhaps they have plans but all they have done up to now is nothing, just like PSA or GM. They are just showing prototypes as usual. They seem to have a hard time recognizing their mistake as if there was a shame in being wrong. In reality being wrong is part of the thinking process, but what is really wrong is being stubbornly wrong when facts are speaking for themselves. A plug-in hybrid is simply the best solution out there. It takes a large but still reasonably priced battery, it can be fueled by grid electricity and gasoline so it offers security, it can be evolved over time so it doesn’t wreak avok the car industry but allow a smooth change. Batteries can evolve to house more EV range, onboard standard engine generators can progressively be replaced by better more adapted generators. Maybe based on a Wankel engine or perhaps a linear direct piston engine; but that is another evolution story on its own.
But for now, what’s important is to start mass production of the baseline plug-in hybrid; motors, a power management unit, a battery and a generator.
We need to do this yesterday. So time for concepts, future plans and half measures is over. Now is the time for cutting metal.

As the engine gets smaller, the surface area/heat loss problem becomes worse (the same reason a small fire easily dies, but a large fire tends to rage). This make the choice of a small Wankel (252 cc, vs. 1300 cc for their typical engine) puzzling. It should be less efficient still.

It could be that they don’t want to make a piston engine that small, or that someone already makes a Wankel this size?

Ironically, Wankels make great air compressors because they lose heat so effectively. But not very good engines.

Vaporware.

…Oh well…