Talk of radically different designs always leads to a single name – Wankel. The Wankel rotary engine, most notably used in automobiles by Mazda, has been around since the late 1950’s.

The latest version adds a rotary engine to its compact predecessor, with prices ranging from 4.2 million yen ($28,000) to 4.9 million yen after tax. The MX-30 Rotary-EV will arrive on the Japanese ...

A rotary engine also isn’t very fuel efficient and ... while the C111-II had a 0-62mph time of just 4.9sec. However, even Mercedes’ engineers couldn’t make it work properly, citing ...