VW At Work On New Clean TDI Engines

When Volkswagen announced that it would be pulling the plug on its dieselvehicles for 2007, the automotive industry was at a loss for words. At the time VW sold the most diesel-powered passenger cars in North America by a very large margin, tailed at quite a distance by the Jeep Liberty CRD and the Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI. In certain markets, the Canadians to the north included, Volkswagen’s diesels accounted for a significant portion of overall sales. VW took certain precautions to ensure that it’d have a protective buffer by stockpiling Jetta TDIs, but that will run out sooner or later. In the U.S., the V10 TDI-powered Touareg is still sold, but only in the 45 states that did not adopt the California emission control.

At the LA International Auto Show, Volkswagen announced a solution to its diesel dilemma. The Wolfsburg-based brand and Audi would be working with DaimlerChrysler to help bring Bluetec to market. It came with the world unveiling of the Tiguan Concept vehicle, marking the first application of Bluetec to a non-DaimlerChrysler branded vehicle. Volkswagen is now developing the technology in a vehicle that most people are familiar with, the Volkswagen Jetta sedan.

The engine under the hood isn’t the 1.9-liter PD TDI engine which has poweredcompact Volkswagen diesels for years; it’s a brand new 2.0-liter engine. Though VW hasn’t released any details about the system, there’s a good possibility it was developed in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz and DCX. A small-displacement, transverse mounted diesel engine could easily be applied to VW’s small cars, Benz’s A- and B-Class compacts, and perhaps even to Dodge’s Caliber and Jeep’s Compass and Patriot. Currently, VW supplies diesels for Chrysler Group’s European operations.

In the case of this Jetta “Clean TDI” prototype, Volkswagen has come up with two emissions control systems that enable it to meet the strict “Tier 2 / Bin 5″ NOx-reducing emissions standards that snuffed out the previous generation diesels. The first system is a cost-effective solution that does not use Bluetec. It uses a NOx reservoir catalytic converter that’s like a highly evolved version of the current particulate filters in use on European-market diesels. It could be used in smaller vehicles like the Jetta and Rabbit.

However, for larger, more powerful vehicles like VW Passats and various Audis, the Bluetec system will be used. The urea-rich AdBlue liquid is held in a separate tank, and injected into the exhaust before a special type of catalytic converter which reduces the NOx levels to within the regulation. A tank of AdBlue is designed to last 150,000 miles, whereupon it can be refilled at a dealer during scheduled maintenance.

In total, Volkswagen has sold over 800,000 diesel-powered vehicles in the United States. With Bluetec and other new technology on its side, VW will be able to keep adding to the count. Volkswagen hopes to launch a new generation of “Clean TDI” by 2008.