Audi to Start Engine Initiative in China

Audi is now bringing its latest-generation engines onto the Chinese market. "We are now making preparations for selling even more cars with FSI and TFSI engines in China", said Werner Eichhorn, Head of Audi Sales in China. In this connection Audi is currently also drawing up a scenario for launching its TDI engines on the Chinese market. The opening event of the "Audi Green Olympics Initiative" took place in the major Chinese industrial centre and port of Shanghai, coinciding with a TechDay at which the car maker presented its efficiency technologies.

The initiative complements the "Audi Olympic Games Program" of cultural and ecological highlights to flank the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In a few days' time, the car manufacturer will be unveiling a new, ultra-efficient saloon model at the Guangzhou Auto Show near Hong Kong - the A6 L 2.8 FSI, with a V6 engine featuring the company's valvelift system (AVS), a pioneering technology for variable control of valve lift. The same engine will be available in the A8 2.8 L FSI. According to European licensing data, the A8 2.8 FSI uses just 8.3 l/100 km - and its CO2 emissions are 199 g/km.

The company believes there is every prospect of establishing the TDI technology in China in the next few years, as indeed there is in the USA. The TDI is a cornerstone of the car manufacturer's global strategy for the future; it combines power with low fuel consumption. TDI engines are consequently capable of harnessing escalating fuel consumption specifically in China, and therefore also CO2 emissions. Diesel-powered passenger cars have hitherto been virtually unknown in China; the introduction of the low-sulphur fuel that they require now satisfies a vital requirement for the operation of modern, low-pollution TDI engines. The company became the first premium carmaker to move into the Chinese market when it started operations there in 1988.