The folks at Audi have decided to keep up with the Joneses over at Mercedes Benz and BMW by offering diesel options to their current and future lineup of cars and SUV’s. Beginning this fall, the Q5, A8, A7 and A6 will be available equipped with TDI clean diesel engines. The A8 TDI, which will be available in spring of 2014, will come with a 3.0L engine, making 240-hp and 406 lb.-ft of torque. Fuel efficiency estimates for the TDI A8 are 24 mpg city and 36 mpg highway.
Starting this fall, Audi’s A6 performance sedan will at long last have an answer to BMW’s 5-series diesel iteration, and the Mercedes E350 BluTec. Its A7 luxury sedan, with its standard eight-speed Tiptronic® automatic transmission and quattro® all-wheel drive, will be a match made in diesel heaven for drivers.
Audi’s compact SUV, the Q5, already available in turbocharged 2.0L I4, and 3.0L V6 engines, will add the TDI 3.0L diesel to its lineup beginning this fall as well. With the addition of the TDI diesel to the available engine options, the Q5 will offer increased torque and better fuel efficiency. The A8, A7, A6 abs Q5 will join Audi’s Q7 TDI to form a scintillating and eye-catching lineup of high-performance diesel choices for the coming model year. The Q7 TDI variant offers fuel economy of 19 city/28 highway. No official announcement has been forthcoming thus far, but speculation persists that Audi will eventually add a TDI option to the A4 as well.
TDI, or Turbocharged Direct Injection, engines are diesel engines that utilize both turbocharging and cylinder-direct fuel injection. In TDI engines, fuel is injected directly into the main combustion chamber, rather than a pre-combustion chamber. This, along with other design features, results in cleaner, more efficient combustion of diesel fuel.