Turbocharged Direct Injection

Turbocharged direct injection or TDI is a design of turbodiesel engines featuring turbocharging and cylinder-direct fuel injection that was developed and produced by the Volkswagen Group (VW AG). These TDI engines are widely used in all mainstream Volkswagen Group marques of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles made by the company (particularly those sold in Europe). They are also used as marine engines in Volkswagen Marine and Volkswagen Industrial Motor applications.

Some TDI engines installed in 2009 to 2015 model year Volkswagen Group cars sold through 18 September 2015 had an emissions defeat device, which activated emissions controls only during emissions testing. The emissions controls were suppressed otherwise, allowing the TDI engines to exceed legal limits on emissions. VW has admitted to using the illegal device in its TDI diesel cars.

In many countries, TDI is a registered trademark of Volkswagen AG.

The TDI designation has also been used on vehicles powered by Land Rover-designed diesel engines. These are unrelated to Volkswagen Group engines.

The TDI engine uses direct injection, where a fuel injector sprays atomised fuel directly into the main combustion chamber of each cylinder, rather than the pre-combustion chamber prevalent in older diesels which used indirect injection. The engine also uses forced induction by way of a turbocharger to increase the amount of air which is able to enter the engine cylinders, and most TDI engines also feature an intercooler to lower the temperature (and therefore increase the density) of the 'charged', or compressed air from the turbo, thereby increasing the amount of fuel that can be injected and combusted. These, in combination, allow for greater engine efficiency, and therefore greater power outputs (from a more complete combustion process compared to indirect injection), while also decreasing emissions and providing more torque than the non-turbo and non-direct injection petrol engined counterpart from VAG.

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