Audi is giving their Facebook fans the Green Police Super Bowl ad a bit early. The ad, which will be shown during Sunday’s game, features the Audi A3 TDI being praised by the Green Police during a “green crackdown.” The 60 second spot is actually a compilation of many of the other Green Police videos already shown.

The fact that Audi is advertising the A3 TDI really speaks to the current economic climate, and I hope will help get diesel technology out to the masses.

Here’s the video:

Check out Audi’s Facebook fan page for some other Green Police videos and info.

Abt AS7 Audi Q7 Facelift

After a couple years, it’s easy to get bored with a car you drive every day, especially if it’s not a particularly exciting car in the first place. Take the Audi Q7 for example. It’s not a bad vehicle in any way, but just like every other SUV on the road, it’s a bit…mundane. That doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy a new car every couple of years though. Bored with your Q7? Hand it over to ABT for an energizing facelift and overall upgrade. Not only will it make you love your SUV again, but you’ll stand out from all the other standard Q7s on the road.

Once you hand the keys over to German tuner ABT, they’ll make enough changes to convince you it’s a different vehicle altogether.

First on the list, ABT will tune the Q7’s engine for a beefier output. If your Q7 is equipped with the 240 hp 3.0 TDI, choose the upgrade for 282 hp or have them add a turbocharger for 310 hp. Owners of the 326 hp Q7 4.2 TDI can get an increase to 365 hp. Audi’s 3.0 TDI clean diesel also has an upgrade available taking the total power output from 240 hp to 278.

In addition to the increased power, ABT will add a complete aerodynamics kit for the AS7, including side skirts, rear skirt, end pipes, fender extension, and rear wing. Special ABT BR one-piece casted wheels round out the exterior changes and add some serious aggressiveness.

A few interior changes are also available, including aluminum pedals and footrest, ABT floor mats, and an ABT trunk mat.

For the third year in a row, Audi will be advertising on the Super Bowl. For the first year, Audi premiered a clever Godfather-style ad for the R8. Last year, they made a short action film based around the A6. This year Audi will feature the A3 TDI – awarded “Green Car of the Year” by Green Car Journal. Can you tell the direction the auto industry is heading here? Featuring the A3 TDI is a very smart move on Audi’s part, and will likely bring in a lot of buyers. This will also help out the diesel market in general, which will be a positive step, especially in the US market.

The Super Bowl ad will feature 70’s rock band Cheap Trick reinterpreting one of their old songs for the ad. Interesting.

The Audi A3 TDI gets an incredible 42 MPG on the highway, which is into hybrid-level territory without the hybrid price premium. The A3 TDI accounts for 53% of the United States’ A3 sales, showing positive movement towards diesel returning to the mainstream.

Right before the Frankfurt Motor Show, Audi is announcing two new A4 models, each using a different fuel.

The most exciting of the two is the A4 3.0 TDI quattro. I’m not sure if we’ll be getting this is the States (cross your fingers,) but it uses the same 3.0-liter diesel engine found in the Q7 TDI. Achieving about 35 mpg, the A4 TDI boasts 240 horsepower and even more impressive, 369 lb/ft of torque. The engine is paired with a 6-speed tiptronic transmission which can get the A4 from 0-62 mph in 6.2 seconds.

The second A4 announced runs on biofuel, aka E85. This fuel is a mixture of 85% ethanol to 15% gasoline, which provides more power, but a significant reduction in fuel economy. Great for corn farmers, not so great for consumers. Audi’s E85 engine for the A4 will be a 2.0-liter TFSI producing 180 hp and 236 lb/ft of torque. Fuel economy is terrible, as expected, at about 26 mpg. Put regular premium gasoline in the same engine and you’ll get 36 mpg – 10 mpg more. I still don’t understand why manufacturers are making these flex-fuel cars, I think they’re terrible.

To get this straight then, we have two new engines – one TDI and one E85. The TDI gets 240 hp and 369 torque and achieves 35 mpg, while the 180/236 E85 gets 26 mpg.

Right.

Yes, E85 fuel is a bit cheaper since the government wants you to use it, but not that much cheaper. I’ll stick with the TDI, thanks.

Audi Clean Campaign in NYC

Audi is running with a new promotional technique in which they use cleaning agents to “paint” the sidewalks in New York City. A great choice in location, considering the cleanliness of the city.

The images created on the sidewalks depict how if only one-third of Americans drove clean diesel, we’d reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 1.5 million barrels a day. I’m glad Audi is really pushing the diesel thing, and now that driving a diesel vehicle is no longer a dirty and smelly experience, I’m really hoping that it catches on in America.

A few facts about diesel:

• Clean diesel engines reduce carbon emissions by 20% over gasoline and are 30% more fuel-efficient.
• One drop of diesel fuel has 12% more power than one drop of gasoline.
• If one-third of Americans switched to from gasoline to clean diesel, it would be the equivalent of planting 2.2 billion trees.
• Diesel is currently less expensive than gasoline nationwide. While this may change day-to-day, it does come back to the issue of America’s dependence on gasoline and being dependent on speculative commodity price fluctuations.

Below is a video released by Audi showing the benefits of diesel technology:

Audi is introducing two new engines to the A3 line-up in Europe, both focusing on a significant improvement in efficiency. The engines are the same size – 1.6-liters – and are both diesel-powered TDIs. The more powerful of the two engines, at 105 horsepower, will achieve over 57 mpg, well into and above the range of gasoline-powered hybrid cars. This engine uses the same start/stop and energy recovery system as the A4 2.0 TDI e, which shuts off the engine when stopped and uses regenerative braking to recover energy normally lost when slowing down. This engine will propel the lightweight A3 from 0-62 mph in 11.4 seconds, which isn’t bad for a car that gets 57 mpg.

The other newly available engine is also a 1.6-liter TDI, but produces only 90 hp, and gets slightly less fuel economy at 52 mpg. This engine does not use the same start/stop and energy recovery system as the more powerful engine, but still gets good fuel economy, and has a decent 170 lb-ft of torque which gives it a 0-62 mph time of 12.9 seconds.

The 90 hp version will start at 22,550 Euros ($32,242 USD,) and the 105 hp car will be 23,550 Euros ($33,672 USD.) I couldn’t see any reason to choose the 90 hp version over the 105 hp alternative, especially with only a 1,000 Euro price difference. The engines will be available for order immediately.

Despite everyone lusting over the R8 V12 TDI Concept from last year, Audi has decided to halt plans on development, citing that “the market isn’t strong enough to make it realistic.” According to AutoExpress, the final blow was a lack of demand in the United States for diesels – the US accounts for one-third of global R8 sales. What a shame, we should absolutely be adopting the idea of diesel engines right now.

Audi claims the cost of re-engineering the petrol R8 to accommodate the massive twin-turbocharged diesel engine is simply too great – and that it would be unable to recoup its investment through sales alone.

But man, what an engine it is. The 5.5-liter TDI engine produced 500 horsepower and over 738 lb-ft of torque for a 0-60 mph blast of 4.2 seconds.

Source: AutoExpress

Audi will be launching the 2.0 TDI e in June in dealerships across Europe. The 2.0 TDI e is the most fuel efficient mid-size sedan on the market. Burning diesel fuel, it manages to get 51.13 mpg out of the turbocharged 2.0-liter engine and burn only 191.51 grams of CO2 per mile, which isn’t a figure we’re very familiar with here in the States.

The efficient “e” model produces 136hp, which while isn’t a great number, isn’t exactly focused on performance. It can run from 0 to 62 mph in 9.5 seconds and reach a top speed of 133mph. We Americans will just have to wait longer until diesel catches on over here, but I know many people who would be excited to get 51mpg out of a mid-size non-hybrid sedan, especially an Audi. The sedan is priced at 30,800 euros (currently a little over $42,200 USD,) and you can also get the “e” as an Avant. While it’s not exactly cheap, neither are comparable hybrids.

The A4 2.0 TDI e efficiency system works much like a hybrid, in that it turns off the engine when you’re stopped, which is especially helpful in stop-and-go traffic. Further effort has been taken to increase efficiency, such as low-resistance tires, a 6-speed manual transmission with a 5% higher final gear ratio, and a revised ECU. The system also uses a regenerative braking system (much like a hybrid,) which stores excess kinetic energy from braking in the battery, discharging it when you resume acceleration to reduce fuel use. Clever indeed.

The A4 2.0 TDI e also tries to save fuel by helping change fuel-guzzling driving habits. It has a shift indicator which is tuned to tell you the most fuel efficient times to shift, and displays all fuel efficiency information on the driver information display, making you see how much fuel you’re using and hopefully persuading you to drive more conservatively. Changing your driving habits alone have ben shown to increase efficiency by around 30% – a big savings at the pump. Audi has also improved the A4 aerodynamics in the “e” model to reduce drag,

Overseas, this is actually the fourth efficiency-focused “e” model Audi has released. Apparently the accountants over at Audi don’t think us Yankees are ready to get 44mpg out of an A6 luxury sedan, or the same 44 mpg out of the TT sports car. Don’t worry though…when gas prices go back up to $4/gallon or higher, we’ll start seeing these over here.

We just reported on the new Q7 TDI availability, but didn’t have any pricing information at the time. Well Audi just announced pricing on the 2009 Q7 TDI, which will start at $51,725 (including the $825 destination charge.) Fairly expensive, but about the same as its main rivals, the BMW X5 35d ($52,025) and Mercedes-Benz ML 320 Bluetec ($48,125.)

The Q7 TDI will also qualify for the $1,150 Alternative Motor Vehicle Tax Credit from the IRS.

Audi (and parent company VW) are launching their initiative to get diesel into the American mainstream again. With hybrid-level efficiency and plenty of power on tap, we Americans need to start learning from the Europeans and looking at getting a diesel-powered car on our next purchase.

So here we have a large Audi SUV that runs on a 225 horsepower 3.0-liter TDI V6 which pushes out an exceptional 406 lbft of torque available at a mere 1750 RPMs – a direct side effect from diesel-powered engines. The Q7 TDI will get a 6-speed Tiptronic transmission paired to a quattro AWD drivetrain.

For those who don’t know, TDI stands for “Turbocharged Direct Injection,” which is simply VW’s term for their modern turbocharged diesel engines. The benefits of driving a diesel are many, but it hasn’t really caught on in the States yet, but with our recent gas price spike, people might start thinking more about the future and buy diesel. The problem is that currently, diesel fuel is more expensive than standard petrol, which cancels out the advantage of better fuel efficiency.

But now, diesel prices are falling again (although very slowly,) and hopefully people will start seeing the upsides again. Modern diesel engines are significantly better than the black smoke-spitting engines of yore. Not only do they provide better fuel economy, but it burns cleaner and emits fewer emissions, and provides exceptional power and torque compared to their gasoline-burning siblings.

Here’s one man looking forward to seeing many “TDI” badges roaming our streets.

More pictures of the Audi Q7 TDI below: