Audi improves the clean diesel breed

Posted by Cetane_100 on 10. May 2009 |

Over the last two decades, Audi has been particularly active in motorsports, first in rallying- where its Quattro all wheel drive was spawned – and later on race tracks – where it debuted gasoline direct injection on the R8. Most recently, the R10 and the R15 have taken diesel technology to new heights with three consecutive wins at Le Mans.

Audi’s now using that racing success to boost its first U.S. clean diesel vehicle, the Q7 TDI, which is finally going on sale about now. Last fall, in the cross country Mileage Marathon, the 50-state legal Q7s averaged about 29 mpg, far more than any of the big hybrid SUVs can manage. Yes, diesel contains more carbon than gasoline but the 30 percent improvement in efficiency far outweighs the extra carbon content and still yields about a 25 percent cut in CO2 emissions. While even clean diesels also produce more NOx than current gasoline engines, they are a huge improvement over they were and the particulate filters like those used on the race cars eliminate the soot.

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