Audi to Launch TDI Initiative on North American Market
by EVANDER KLUM
The luxury division of Volkswagen, Audi has recently announced its plan of launching its TDI initiative on the North American market. The plan is scheduled to transpire early next year. Audi will start the production of the cleanest diesel engine in the world in the USA in conjunction with its launching in Europe. The 3.0 TDI with ultra-low emission system will be made available for the Audi Q7and later on for the new Audi A4.
Audi has been expanding it��s in the US for many years now and sees US as a potential market for its cutting-edge TDI engines. The low-sulphur fuel required to power the engines was introduced throughout the country a year ago and has given way for developments to begin.
The TDI engine is truly a breakthrough in the sense that it is the most successful efficiency technology produced so far. Audi has first introduced it into a series production 18 years ago and has ever since has been progressively extending its lead over rival technologies.
Ralph Weyler, Board Member for Marketing and Sales at Audi AG said at the German TecDay which is an information event organized jointly by Volkswagen, Bosch, and the Association of the German Automotive Industry at San Francisco, California, "The TDI units burn up to 35 percent less fuel than the average of petrol engines typically used in the USA. This means that the TDI can assume an important role in the rapid reduction of CO2 emissions. No other drive system can beat the TDI��s combination of high power and low fuel consumption."
Basing on the calculations made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States could conserve around 1.4 million of barrels of crude oil every day if just one third of the all passengers cars as well as light-duty commercial vehicles were equipped with up-to-date diesel engines.
J.D. Power the leading market research firms has predicted that diesel engines will have a 12 to 15 percent share of the US market in 2015 which represents a substantial jump compared to the current share of sales of around four percent.
The new ultra-low emission Audi 3.0 TDI produces an output of 240hp and 406 lb-ft of torque which makes it both powerful and efficient. Moreover, the new technologies optimize the combustion process in the V6 wherein the common rail-injection system builds up 29,400 psi of pressure while sensors monitor the combustion chambers.
One of the significant innovations is the ultra low emission system in the exhaust tract much similar to that of the Gibson exhaust which largely eliminates nitrogen oxides through the application of a carbonic acid diamide solution. And with this equipped on the 3.0 TDI enables it to meet the toughest emission standard in the world��the LEV II Bin 5 classification which is impose in the US states of California, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The high-tech diesel from Audi also complies with the emission requirements that are to be enforced in Europe from 2014.
Audi is serious about the issue of efficiency and it��s evident on its new technologies, new engines, and new drive concepts. The luxury division of Volkswagen aside from its TDI initiative also hosts other avant-garde solutions of which include the groundbreaking, ultra-efficient FSI engines with petrol direct injection and technology modules for Intelligent Energy Management (IEM) such as the start/stop system and a micro-hybrid. And in view of the company��s belief that fuels have a key role to play in the reduction of CO2 emissions, the brand with the four rings is focusing all its efforts on the second generation of biofuels.
