Audi's second experimental hot diesel concept features an electric supercharger that makes a huge difference to throttle response Twenty years ago, the notion that a diesel-powered car could ever seriously challenge an acknowledged, upper-echelon performance car on track would have been ridiculous.Now it’s becoming a reality in the form of this Audi A6 concept, a second ‘diesel RS’ prototype to join the RS 5 TDI concept we tested recently.Like its more powerful stablemate, the A6 TDI quattro concept is equipped with a new electric compressor technology designed to banish turbo lag once and for all. This is not a turbo and there’s no exhaust driven turbine and instead, the compressor is a small supercharger driven by a 7kW, 48-volt electric motor.Diesel engines suffer lag badly compared to petrol because their great efficiency results in cooler exhaust gasses and correspondingly less energy to spin a turbo, especially at lower revs.Unlike the RS 5 TDI bi-turbo concept, the A6 TDI concept is equipped with the new 3.0 TDI single-turbo engine from the standard A6. The electric compressor is installed downstream from the intercooler in series with the conventional turbocharger system.At low revs the electric compressor fires up and reaches maximum speed in just 250 milliseconds, plugging the torque gap that causes lag.
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