Audi used this year’s Vienna Motor Symposium in Austria to debut its next-generation 3.0-liter TDI turbodiesel V-6, which should start appearing in the automaker’s vehicles as early as this year. The engine is more powerful than the unit it replaces, also a 3.0-liter mill, and it’s said to also be more efficient and have cleaner exhaust gases.
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The new engine will initially be offered with two different power ratings, 218 and 272 horsepower, and peak torque is said to reach as high as 442 pound-feet (dependent on application). By comparison, the current 3.0-liter TDI delivers 240 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque in its most potent guise. Note, Audi’s sister brand Porsche has its own 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 that delivers as much as 300 hp and 479 lb-ft.
Key elements of the engine are piston rings and pins that have been optimized for minimal friction, separate coolant loops for the crankcase and cylinder heads, a more efficient turbocharger, and, for the first time on a production engine, a NOx storage catalytic converter that has been combined with a diesel particulate filter and SCR injection in a single assembly.
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Audi hasn’t mentioned what vehicles the engine will be fitted to initially, but in the U.S. expect it to appear gradually in the A6, A8, Q5 and Q7 lines.
Unveiling new engines at the Vienna Motor Symposium has become sort of a tradition for the brand with four rings. It presented its 2.5 TFSI five-cylinder at the event in 2009 and in 2010 the new (at that time) 3.0 TDI. The premieres of a 3.0 TDI twin-turbo unit and the latest 1.8 TFSI followed in 2011, and in 2012 Audi presented its 4.0 TFSI. Last year, the company first presented the TDI V-6 for its R18 e-tron quattro Le Mans prototype.
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