While Audi's exhaustive press release accompanying the launch of the newly-revised-for-2009 A3 mentioned both the availability of new diesel engines along with a seven-speed version of the dual-clutch S tronic transmission, Audi's arm in the UK has decided it's worth mentioning them again. This time, though, statistics regarding the reduction of carbon emissions are given, so decided we'd share them too. For instance, the revised '09 2.0 TDI with 140 horsepower, which was rated at 52.3mpg (US) last year, jumps to 55.4mpg, while reducing CO2 output from 143g/km to 134g/km. Audi also points out that the new 105 horse 1.9 TDI e offers a low CO2 output of 119g/km while gaining standard manual air conditioning. The e series from Audi, like the Bluemotion models from VW, are designed specifically with low carbon emissions in mind. Too bad the 1.9 TDI e engine comes paired with a five-speed manual only, as the mileage would likely increase with the addition of the seven-speed S tronic. See all of the available powertrain combinations in the press release after the break.
It had to happen: since most European brands have created "eco" signature labels to mark their lowest-CO2 emitting models, it's time for Lancia, which belongs to the Fiat group, to do the same. What's it called? The "Ecollection."
Lancia has modified its Musa model, the subcompact minivan showed above, to produce less than 119 g/km of CO2 (118 for the automatic version) by means of using the well-known1.3 Multijet diesel engine found elsewhere in other Fiat-group models, reducing the suspension and installing some aerodynamic tweaks. Prices start at €18,990 in Spain, where the Muso Ecollection is elligible for another low number: 0 percent tax.
Another of the honorees in this year's International Engine of the Year competition is BMW's latest diesel engine. The dual turbo 2.0L four cylinder that debuted in the 123d this year was selected by the 65 member jury as the Best New Engine for 2008. This new engine provides exceptional power for a 2.0L diesel and excellent fuel economy. The 123d is rated at 204hp while achieving 45mpg on the EU driving cycle and emitting only 138g/km of CO2. The engine uses a pair of turbochargers of different sizes to provide quick low end response and plenty of top end power. Features like an aluminum block have helped cut 38lbs from the weight of the engine compared to BMW's older four cylinder diesel. The performance and emissions of this engine are also enhanced by a third-generation common rail fuel injection system and particulate filter.
We gave a pretty detailed write-up last summer on GM's new light-duty diesel V-8 that will premiere in 2009. The new engine was specifically designed to fit within the same package dimensions as the long-running small-block V-8. As such, the diesel can potentially be installed in any GM vehicle that currently carries the V-8. GM has announced that the new 4.5L engine will have output of 310hp and 520lb-ft of torque. The Duramax 4500 will also provided a 25 percent reduction in fuel consumption compared to the similarly powerful gasoline engines. That puts it on a par (when comparing combined city/highway numbers) with the two-mode hybrid system when it debuts in the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups next year.
When the engine debuts for the 2010 model year it will be the first GM diesel to use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to reduce NOx emissions. SCR is also known as urea injection. Vehicles with this engine will meet Tier 2 Bin 5 standards and be fifty-state legal. In order to fit the dual overhead engine in the space of the cam-in-block small-block, GM engineers reduced the angle of the block and reversed the intake and exhaust flow through the cylinder heads. The intake valves are now on the outside of the heads and the manifold feeds air in from the top. The exhaust manifolds are now in the valley of the block along with the turbocharger. Previously, GM has also indicated that this engine would also go into the Hummer H2 which would do a lot to improve that vehicle's mileage.
Motor Trend may be one of those stalwart publications that still sends out bound and printed piles of paper every month but they aren't complete luddites. The boss man over there, one Angus MacKenzie just spent a few days back on the continent and took a road trip in a new Audi A4 TDI. Unlike the 3.0L V-6 diesel I drove recently, Angus got the 2.0L four cylinder engine (essentially the same unit coming to the VW Jetta this summer). On a 525-mile jaunt up and down the length Portugal, Angus certainly did not spare the whip with an average speed of 83 mph and he still averaged 34mpg. On a lower speed stretch he got 47mpg. The gist of his story is that diesel power can make for a great all around car with great fuel efficiency that doesn't have to sacrifice driving pleasure. This correlates perfectly with our own recent diesel experiences. Now, if MT would just get out of the tree killing business.
Gallery: ABG First Drive: 2008 Audi A4 3.0 TDI Quattro
For everyone who has been waiting anxiously for the new fifty state legal Volkswagen Jetta TDI to arrive at U.S. dealers, it appears things are inching a little closer. A reader the other day spotted a transporter filled with Jettas festooned with TDI signage headed northbound on a North Carolina freeway. Andrew called a local VW dealer who confirmed that these were actually among the first batch of TDIs that will be available for test drives at dealers around North America for the next couple of months before they go on sale later this summer. We first reported on VW's plans back in February at the Chicago Auto Show. From the initial batch of 1,000 cars, each dealer will get one car initially and more will arrive through the course of the summer. Volkswagen expects about half of the 15,000 Sportwagens for 2009 to be TDI powered with about 30-40 percent of the sedans. Keep your eyes open for the new Jetta TDI and if you can snap some photos put them up on Flickr or some other site and send us a link. In the meantime check out the driving impressions of the gas-powered Jetta SportWagen.
Coca-Cola and its bottlers are increasing the number of hybrid vehicles they use in their sales and delivery fleets. By the end of this year, Coke's sales fleet of 800 vehicles will contain 550 hybrids (as of now, it has 325), and by the end of next year the entire fleet should be hybridized. The Atlanta-based soft drink giant's green fleet includes the Toyota Prius, Camry Hybrid, and Highlander Hybrid along with the Ford Escape Hybrid. Similarly, both Coca-Cola Enterprises and Coca-Cola Consolidated, the company's #1 and #2 bottlers respectively, are following suit with plans to add more hybrid cars and SUVs through next year. Coca-Cola Enterprises also operates 120 diesel-electric hybrid trucks in its larger 20,000-vehicle delivery fleet. According to a representative quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, fuel prices are a huge concern for Coke, and the hybrids are less costly to operate. The biggest impact is likely to be made as Coke's bottlers leverage hybrid trucks for deliveries. Coca-Cola Enterprises' pilot fleet showed that the hybrid trucks' emissions and fuel consumption are a third lower than their traditionally-powered counterparts. With fuel prices on a steady climb, that kind of savings gets the attention of the decision-makers in the boardroom.
We recently told you that Audi has no electric car plans for the immediate future. We were right. Those plans seem to be some years away according to the CEO of Audi, Rupert Stadler. In an interview published yesterday by Welt am Sonntag, Stadler stated that diesel would hold the interest of the market for the next 5-10 years, but in that time electrics would become more generally accepted and Audi would then offer emission-free cars. Reminded that Mercedes and BMW already have high performance lithium ion batteries, the Audi boss was asked if he wasn't worried about lagging behind. Stadler seemed to shrug off the suggestion saying he wasn't concerned because their research capacity was larger than many of his competitors.
Earlier in the interview, at the end of a discussion about the merits of dieselsversushybrids, the CEO had this to say about hybrids, "Außerdem sehen wir den Hybrid langfristig lediglich als Durchgangsstation zum vollelektrischen Fahren." Which, according to the Babelfish (slightly cleaned up), translates as "In addition, we see the hybrid on a long-term basis only as stepping stone to all-electric driving." The bottom line here seems to be: more diesels for the immediate future with electric vehicles coming into play a few years down the road, by which time the 2006 R-Zero electric concept design (pictured above) will seem quaint.
One of the keys to making the latest generation of diesel engines as clean and efficient as they are has been common rail injection systems and, more recently, piezo electric injectors. Continental Automotive Systems has just introduced a new type of piezo injector that may take diesels to the next level. Earlier injectors used electro-magnetic solenoids to move the injector needles allowing fuel to flow into the combustion chamber. Piezo injectors use a stack of piezo crystal plates that expand when an electric current is applied. That expansion causes the needle to move. The expansion of the piezo crystals is more precise and repeatable than the electro-magnetic solenoids allowing for more precise fuel metering for lower consumption and emissions.
Continental's new injector design takes advantage of the precision and reproducibility of the piezo crystals by adding position sensing to the needle itself. Because the position of the needle in time now correlates so well to the fuel flow rate, the potential exists to be able to eliminate other sensors that are being used to control diesel fuel systems. High pressure common rail injection systems typically use 5 -7 individual injection pulses per combustion cycle. Because the fuel flow can be measured in real time with the new injectors, the size of individual pulses within the sequence can be varied for even lower fuel consumption and emissions. Continental is claiming the new injectors help achieve a 35 percent reduction in particulate and NOx emissions. An engine optimized for these injectors could potentially meet the Euro VI (and equivalent US Tier 2 Bin 5) standards without the need for any costly NOx aftertreatment. This would help cut the cost premium between gas and diesel engines.
We've written here previously about Audi's new TDI version of the TT sports car and having sampled numerous other diesels recently. It's a shame this one isn't being offered in the U.S. What Car? has had a chance to to drive the TT TDI and it sounds like they really liked the 44mpg sportster. Diesel engines have a reputation for being low revving and while this one certainly won't reach the lofty heights of most gas engined sports cars it easily revs past 5,000rpm and has almost constant torque everywhere. The refined nature of the VW/Audi 2.0L diesel means that most observers will never realize what kind of fuel it consumes. This same engine in a slightly lower power tune is the one that will propel the Jetta TDI starting this summer. Please, Audi, bring the TT TDI to the U.S. market.
As vehicles get more and more complex, auto suppliers will need everything in their arsenal to win major contracts from automakers. According to an article on Just-Auto (sub. req'd), by the year 2012, automotive suppliers will bear more than half of the total research and development of a given automobile. What this means for suppliers is that they need to stay at the forefront in environmental technologies. Increasingly complex systems will be necessary for automobiles to meet stringent emissions and fuel efficiency requirements. Biofuels and clean diesel technology are reportedly one area that suppliers are being relied rather heavily upon.
Not only must the suppliers integrate the latest technology into their equipment, they need to do so at an agreeable cost to the manufacturer. Donald Walker of Magna International indicates that the road ahead will not be easy, saying, "There will be fewer pieces of the business to bid on, so the supply chain is going to shrink. Some suppliers will prosper and others will go out of business." Sounds like an already tough business stands to get even tougher.
Two years after its racing debut at the 2006 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Audi R10 TDI is making its first ever visit to the classic Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium. The R10s are running in the European Le Mans Series for the first time this year and Spa will be a whole new challenge for Audi. The length of the Belgian track has been cut by more than half to 4.4miles from its original 9.3miles but it still remains one of the most challenging tracks in the world. The diesel-powered Audis will again be taking on the dominant Peugeot 908 HDis but the R10s are fueled by a GTL fuel supplied by technical partner Shell. GTL is a gas to liquid fuel produced from natural gas. GTL has an advantage over conventional petroleum diesel in that it is free of sulfur and produces less particulate emissions without any changes to the engine. The same processes used to produce the liquid fuel from natural gas can be used to produce fuel from a syngas derived from biomass. Audi's press release is after the jump.
Enova Systems has been collaborating with IC Bus for the past couple of years to build a series of plug-in hybrid school buses for testing purposes. Enova recently had an independent CARB-certified lab conduct dynamometer tests on a pair of PHEV school buses to compare the fuel consumption and emissions against conventional models. Enova's system is designed to be installed downstream of the transmission so that it can be easily adapted to buses and drivetrains from different manufacturers. One 2007 and one 2008 IC Bus Series CE bus with different engines and transmissions were tested on a West Virginia University Suburban Test Cycle designed to emulate a typical school bus duty cycle. In the tests, the PHEV buses saw a 70 percent reduction in diesel fuel consumption. Carbon dioxide emissions were cut by 40 percent while soot and NOx were reduced by 30 and 20 percent, respectively. IC Bus has also decided to cut the $200,000+ of the hybrid buses by $40,000. Currently there are 19 of the Enova equipped buses running in eleven states.
The BlueMotion moniker is the denomination that Volkswagen gives to its low CO2-producing models. Such a label might not seem appropriate for a 7-seat minivan, but that didn't stop the Sharan BlueMotion from making its introduction at Geneva in February. Now, the Sharan BlueMotion is on sale in Germany. The BlueMotion designation means CO2 emissions of 159g/km compared to the 177g/km from the regular model. Average fuel consumption of the new van is 6 l/100 km (38mpg U.S.) which is quite impressive for a seven-passenger vehicle of this size. The Sharan is propelled by a 140hp 2.0L TDI engine with a diesel particulate filter at the exhaust. Prices start at €32,200.
According to an article in The New Economic Times, Fiat is planning to launch a new ethanol-powered engine for the Brazilian market. Ethanol is widely used for fuel in Brazil and half of the country's sugar cane crops are currently used for its production. Fiat intends the motor to be run on fuel that the ethanol producers create themselves, saving on taxes. What is most interesting about this story, though, is that it seems the new engine will be based on a current diesel block. In fact, a small amount of diesel fuel is required to run the engine.
"Use of additives (in ethanol) makes running (an engine) dangerous, subject to explosions," according to Fiat Powertrain Technologies product development engineer Joao Irineu Medeiros. "The diesel will be just enough for ignition and the ethanol will complete the combustion," he adds. It sounds like the new Fiat design will be a compression ignition engine running on e-diesel. Instead of being mixed at the pump, though, Fiat is planning to keep the fuels separate until injected into the engine. Proper tuning would be essential, which would explain why Fiat needs until 2010 to bring this engine to market.
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