When the subject is highly efficient eco-friendly turbo charged engines, no other auto maker in the world has more authority than Audi. Over the years Audi has developed their diesel engines with excellence merging efficiency with driving pleasure and proving that performance and fuel efficiency can be combined.

A perfect example of this are the newly developed 1.6 TDI engines for the Audi A3 with outputs of 90hp and 105p, these new engines combine performance and fuel efficiency with low CO2 emissions.

With a fuel consumption of 68.8 mpg the Audi A3 equipped with the 105hp 1.6 TDI engine sprints from 0-62mph in impressive 11.4 seconds and reaches a top speed of 121mph while maintaining CO2 emissions at only  175 g/mile (109 g/km).

Meanwhile, the smaller engine with 90hp also proves to have great fuel efficiency and good performance with its high torque of 230 Nm. This engine allows the Audi A3 to sprint from 0.62mph in 12.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 112mph and CO2 emissions of 190 g/mile (118g/km).

Audi combines a series of factors to achieve these impressive numbers, first we have Audi’s start/stop technology, extremely effective for city driving, as soon as the vehicle comes to a stop, the shift lever is in neutral, and once the driver removes their foot from the clutch pedal, the system turns the engine off. The engine then turns back on as soon as the clutch pedal is depressed.

But fuel saving starts before the A3 stops at the traffic light, with Audi’s energy recovery system the alternator converts kinetic energy to usable energy during a vehicle’s coasting and braking phases before temporarily storing it in the battery. This stored energy is then used in electrical components when driving off or accelerating reducing the load on the alternator saving of to 3% fuel.