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Having accumulated 354 points from 65 judges, VW’s innovative new-generation TSI Twincharger has ended four years of BMW dominance to win the overall International Engine of the Year Award for 2009.

In what was the closest race in the history of the Awards, the Twincharger beat the 2007 and 2008 champion, BMW’s 3-litre DI Twin Turbo by four points. TSI’s triumph in the overall International Engine of the Year, Green Engine and 1-litre to 1.4-litre categories will be seen as an important victory for those backing the downsizing of internal combustion engines over other solutions such as gasoline hybrids and full electric vehicles.

Most notable was how well VW’s 1.4-litre unit managed to gather points from markets outside Europe, with judges in North America, Asia and South America all awarding top marks. “It was an easy choice,” said international motoring journalist Peter Robinson. “TSI combines outstanding refinement with terrific performance and low consumption and emissions.” American Matt Davis was equally impressed: “Volkswagen’s 1.4-litre TSI EA111 is still way ahead of the curve, sensationally over-engineered in all the right ways, and even makes the company’s fantastic 2-litre TFSI already look like yesterday’s tech.”

The four-cylinder combines a turbocharger and supercharger in one compact unit. The result is power of up to 178bhp, but what’s most impressive is the engine’s specific power that attains 127.1bhp per litre of displacement. And with 240Nm of torque coming good at 1,500rpm, it’s easy to see why the jurors that look for performance and sporty characteristics were impressed.

But power is just part of the story for this year’s International Engine of the Year. The TSI derivative mated to VW’s DSG system emits 144g CO2/km, and in a Golf application, fuel consumption is rated at 6.2litres/100km (45.5mpg). With those figures, it’s little wonder that TSI won.









Unfortunately and as usual we wont be seeing this motor in the US. They keep all of the "green " stuff in Europe. I know this old news but I am frustrated that we don't see motors like this in the US. The article in motor trend this month stated that they don't want to sell it here because the price would have to come in at $3300 over the 2.5 liter Golf

 

Wow, for a small displacement engine, it sure packs a punch (am I reading it right? 1.4 liters with 170+ horses and 240 NM of torque?!?!?)

I bet if VW made a Polo GTI version (or a performance-centered version of the Polo), then this would most likely be the engine to use hehe

 

I still think despite the increased price consumers will want a car like that here. Think of a young college kid in lets say LA who is driving 40 miles each way in traffic. This car is awesome for city drivers who need to save gas more than they really need to break the sound barrier and set lap records

 

actually, Autobild has tested 1.4TFSI in Golf vs competition and found that in real life, it spent more fuel than 1.6l Valvematic unit in Toyota Auris (it was lower spec unit with 120+ hp), as well as slower to 0-100kmh.

At the end of the day, it is 1.4.l engine with big turbo... when you press gas, it spends fuel. It might work well for European MPG tests though.