Volkswagen's compact all-rounder workhorse, the 1.0 and 1.5 TSI engines

It is the petrol engine at Volkswagen, the TSI evo with a capacity of 1.0-litre and 1.5-litres is available for almost all product lines from the up! GTI to the Passat, the T-Cross and the Tiguan. Whether with three or four cylinders - a package full of high-tech solutions makes the engine both efficient and powerful.

"The acronym TSI stands for turbocharged stratified injection, denoting the combination of turbocharging and direct injection," explains Dr. Frank Welsch, Member of the Board of Management responsible for Technical Development at Volkswagen.

Whether the three or the four-cylinder variant, with 88bhp or 148bhp - the compact TSI evo engines combine powerful performance and high efficiency. In the Golf family, for example, the 1.0-litre eTSI is available in conjunction with a mild-hybrid system.

The 1.5-litre TSI and 1.0-litre TSI originate from the EA211 engine family, which launched in the Golf 7 in 2012. In 2016/17, the four-cylinder units were completely revamped. At the same time, their previous capacities of 1.4-litres and 1.2-litres were standardised at 1.5-litres. The improvements were integrated into the 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine in 2019. Both power units have had the designation EA211 TSI evo since the updates.

With only two capacity variants - 999cc and 1,498cc - both base engines offer a wide power range. The 1.0 TSI covers the range from 88bhp to 113bhp, while the 1.5-litre TSI generates 128bhp or 148bhp. Within the Golf family, both engines operate together with a 48V mild-hybrid system. This reduces consumption, boosts the tractive power and improves spontaneous power development.

The turbocharger features variable turbocharger geometry for the first time in the 1.5-litre TSI engines. This permits absolute charge pressures up to 230kPa in the four-cylinder engine with 128bhp and even 280kPa in the three-cylinder variant.

As a result, the engines can spontaneously build up their maximum torque already at very low revs. In the 1.0-litre TSI, the turbocharger can withstand exhaust gas temperatures of up to 950 degrees Celsius, and it achieves a maximum speed of 289,000rpm.

The common rail injection system in all TSI evo petrol engines operates at a maximum pressure of 350bar and is capable of delivering up to five injections per combustion cycle. The fuel is atomised into very fine droplets, mixture formation is precise, and raw emissions are kept at low levels. A particulate filter is located directly downstream of the engine which filters almost all remaining soot particles from the exhaust gas.

The aluminium crankcase makes TSI evo engines very lightweight - the three-cylinder variant weighs just 88kg. Both the three-cylinder and the four-cylinder engines producing 148bhp benefit from sophisticated manufacturing technology to reduce friction in the crankshaft group.

The cylinder walls consist of a 100-micrometre thick iron coating that is applied by plasma spraying. A map-controlled cooling module guarantees efficient thermal management in the 1.5-litre TSI and 1.0-litre TSI. An important component here is the exhaust manifold, which is integrated in the cylinder head, this contributes to the engine heating up quickly so that exhaust gas treatment starts early on.