Volkswagen Group of America said the announcement underscored the Group’s continued success with diesel technology in the US—year-to-date the Volkswagen Group of America has sold more than 47,000 clean diesel vehicles, including more than 10,000 in the month of July alone. This represents nearly 78% of the diesel sales for passenger cars in the United States this year.

The engine is a turbocharged, common-rail, direct-injection four-cylinder engine delivering 150 hp (112 kW)—an increase of 10 hp over the current engine—and 236 lb-ft (320 N·m) of torque.

This engine shares only the bore spacing with the previous diesel engine that shared the same designation. A number of changes have been made to help reduce emissions, such as:

• use of a dual-loop exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system (with high pressure EGR and a cooled low-pressure EGR);

• integration of the water-cooled intercooler and the EGR valve with the intake manifold, which also improves throttle response; and

• packaging the exhaust after-treatment components close to the engine by combining the DPF with the SCR Catalyst.

The engine also has a number of modifications to help minimize friction and optimize fuel economy: there are low-friction bearings for the camshaft and balancer shafts; piston rings that have less pre-tension; and the oil pump is a two-stage device with volumetric flow regulation.