20 years of TDI engines from Audi

As reported by Audi

Audi is celebrating another very special anniversary in 2009: the 20th birthday of TDI technology. In the fall of 1989, the Audi 100 2.5 TDI – the first Audi with a direct-injection turbocharged diesel engine – was exhibited at the Frankfurt International Motor Show. Ever since, the brand with the four rings has continued to increase its lead and set many milestones. Since 1989, Audi has produced over five million TDI engines and is now marketing a wide range of leading-edge power units. They combine great propulsive power, sporty driving enjoyment and exemplary efficiency, and demonstrate that this technology also holds great potential for the future.

Audi 100 2.5 TDI

Audi has been building diesel engines for over 30 years, the first of which was a five-cylinder unit with prechamber injection that made its debut in 1978. 11 years later, the brand made a technological breakthrough that revolutionized the diesel market. Under the abbreviation TDI, direct injection, turbocharging and totally electronic engine management were combined to create an entirely new dimension of powertrain technology.

Since then, the Audi brand’s engineering advances have propelled diesel engines to an undreamed-of technological boom and overwhelming market success. The TDI from Audi had put an end once and for all to the old diesel image as “lame, loud, and dirty” and turned it into the opposite. Today nearly every automaker includes this technology in its program.

“20 years of TDI means 20 years of progress and dynamic change, sporty power and efficiency,” says Michael Dick, Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development at AUDI AG. “The TDI has been a key factor contributing to the advance of our brand into the premium segment. It has become the world’s most successful efficiency technology that is unsurpassed in the relation of power output to fuel efficiency.”

The father of the Audi brand’s TDI technology is Richard Bauder, who continues to head the company’s diesel engine development to this day. The program was launched in 1976 with the 1973 oil crisis still fresh in mind, as Bauder reports. “What we set out to achieve was to develop an internal combustion engine with the lowest possible fuel consumption. We checked out all conceivable concepts all the way to a two-stroke diesel engine, and in the process analyzed and improved diverse injection and combustion methods. One of our big breakthroughs was the dual-spring injection-nozzle holder, which allowed the pre-injection of smaller fuel amounts. The result was smoother combustion and improved acoustics – the fundamental requirements for use in passenger cars.”

Audi 2.5 TDI