Posted on Thursday 1 May 2008
As fuel economy standards tighten and prices rise, more car makers are turning to forced-induction solutions to improve the efficiency of existing engines. Turbochargers are the most efficient way to do so, and Detroit firm BorgWarner sees rising demand in North America, Europe and China as its ticket to increased sales. A partnership with Ford for its EcoBoost line of engines will be a driving force in the North American upswing.
The company will be building new plants in Mexico and Thailand and adding on to its facilities in Poland and Hungary, reports Automotive News. The expansion is designed to increase its output by 3 million turbochargers over the next three years. That represents a 40% increase, from 19 million to 27 million units. Europe alone is expected to see a 20% growth in turbocharger use.
This could mean a new generation of performance and economy vehicles. With many more turbocharged vehicles on the market, the price of maintenance and repairs for the relatively high-tech devices should drop as well.
For the enthusiasts, it’s widely known that forced-induction cars are often suitable to easy and inexpensive modifications that can quickly increase power output. For the average driver, it will mean smaller engines that burn less fuel but provide similar levels of performance to todays mostly naturally aspirated engines.
Some of the specific applications BorgWarner will be using its turbochargers for include the rear-wheel drive variants of Ford’s EcoBoost line. The company claims the use of dual turbochargers on a direct-injection Ford’s 3.5L V6 will make it perform like a V8, but with a 20% savings in fuel and a 15% savings in emissions.
Get rid of turbo lag.
Autoque- You may want to drive the last generation of the Mazda RX7. Its like driving a sewing machine, very smooth…..
yeah, autoque; I dont know what the newest car was that you drove that had a turbo but the mazdaspeed3 has hardly any at all.
the only car I’ve really noticed any turbolag on is my 88 merkur XR4Ti and let me tell you, I love that car because of the lag. it makes it fun. makes it challenging to drive. that and when you get to 3,000 rpm the turbo just slams on and you’re liable to lose the back end,.. but i digress.