From TDI to E-Tech, car manufacturers have always loved to give their engines names, not only to offer a label so everyone know what’s under the bonnet, but also to convey a sense of ‘mine’s better than yours’ and hopefully woo more buyers. But what do they all mean?
For decades car makers have included an engine designation in the title of their cars in part to inform but also to promote.
These engine tags have been around so long that these days we take them for granted and worry little about what they actually mean or stand for.
So to rectify that situation, YesAuto has picked some of the newest, best-selling and longest standing engine names and found out what each stands for.
Before we get started, there are few basics that tend to apply across the board. For instance, in engine naming terms the letter ‘i’, upper or lower case, almost always stands for ‘injection’. Historically, ‘i’ signified electronic fuel injection rather than the use of a mechanical carburettor. However, now every modern car with a combustion engine uses fuel injection rather than a carburettor, which may make it seem like the ‘i' is a little superfluous to requirements.
And ‘D’ usually, but not always, stands for diesel. However, it’s designations such as this where confusion can begin to build; that’s because ‘D’ can also stand for ‘direct’.
TDI
Possibly one of the most well-known engine names is TDI, first used by VW Group. And while all TDI engines are diesels, the ‘D’ in TDI actually refers to direct, as in direct injection. The ‘T’ in this case – and almost all other automotive engine uses – stand for turbocharged.
Interestingly, Volkswagen’s own website doesn’t actually call TDI an acronym and give each letter a word, instead pointing out that it means “advanced diesel engines using direct fuel injection and a turbocharger”.
While we’re in Volkswagen Group territory, the manufacturer also uses a collection of related badges for its petrol engines including TSI, FSI, TFSI and eTFSI.
The ‘SI’ in all cases means ‘stratified injection’ which is VW’s term for running a higher compression ratio without engine knock, in reality this means a more efficient engine.
The addition of ‘T’ indicates the engine’s turbocharged and the ‘F’ stands for fuel. Simple enough, but that doesn’t really make it easy to differentiate between TSI and TFSI – because they both use fuel and they’re both turbo. In reality this is where the line blurs between a true engine descriptor and a marketing name as both use the same sort of technology.
And the ‘e’? Well that simply stands for electric or electrified and indicates the car’s a plug-in hybrid.
Keeping it simple
A full version of this article was first published on YesAuto UK.
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