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BorgWarner To Invest $125M in Turbocharger Expansion; to Support Ford EcoBoost for RWD
2 May 2008
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| A BorgWarner turbocharger. |
BorgWarner Inc. will invest approximately $125 million to increase the company’s global passenger car turbocharger capacity by more than three million units. The increased capacity is expected to meet growing demand for the company’s fuel-efficient turbocharger technology and will support new business awards in North America, Europe and Asia.
The company also announced that it will supply turbochargers for rear-wheel drive cars and pickup trucks featuring Ford’s upcoming EcoBoost engine, a downsized gasoline direct-injection engine with dual turbochargers (earlier post). The combination of turbo power and gasoline direct injection means the 3.5-liter V6 engine will perform like a V8, but with an increase in fuel economy of up to 20% and a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 15%.
The $125 million in investments include construction of new facilities in Mexico and Thailand, and expansion of facilities in Hungary and Poland. The added capacity will produce turbochargers for both diesel and gasoline engines. The spending for these projects will occur over the next few years.
The continued growth of diesel engines around the world and the move to gasoline direct injected engines in North America provide us an opportunity to leverage our turbocharger technology expertise as never before. We will be well positioned to serve our customers’ needs as the world market for turbochargers expands. The demand for turbochargers is expected to grow over 40% in the next five years, from 19 million units to 27 million as more engines are downsized and turbocharged and more sophisticated engines incorporate multiple turbochargers.
—Tim Manganello, BorgWarner Chairman and CEO
North American turbocharger production for passenger cars is expected to more than double from 1 million units today to 2.3 million by 2013. Gasoline and diesel turbocharged engines are a key part of every major automakers’ future plans in North America. A turbocharger facility to be built on the BorgWarner campus in Ramos, Mexico is expected to start production in mid-2010.
The third expansion of the Hungary plant will accommodate production of an advanced turbocharger system for a new gasoline engine program and programs for small diesel engines with critical European customers. The facility in Poland, which just began construction in March, is already sold to capacity and will move into a second phase expansion immediately. The expansion will double its floor space to accommodate a number of additional programs for small diesel engines.
Demand for small diesel turbocharged vehicles continues to rise sharply in Europe. Diesel turbocharger production is expected to grow 20% in Europe from about 11.8 million units today to 14.2 million units in 2013. Over the same period, European gasoline turbocharger production is expected to more than double from about 1.6 million units to 3.8 million units.
Borgwarner selected Thailand as a strategic location for expansion of turbocharger production in Asia to support both local and ASEAN demand. Current turbocharger demand in Thailand is increasing rapidly with several Japanese and North American based automakers in the process of expanding production there. Turbocharger production in Asia is expected grow 48% by 2013 to 6.7 million units.
May 2, 2008 in Engines, Vehicle Systems | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
The first step down Hubbert's Peak: downsizing and turbocharging.
FYI: if every LDV in the U.S. had a downsized and turbocharged engine (increase in fuel economy 20%) we would save 1.8 million gallons of gasoline per day. Assuming other forms of petrol conservation, 1.8mbpd would translate into 3.6mbpd of reduced crude oil demand (a ~18% reduction).
Posted by: GreenPlease | May 2, 2008 5:24:15 AM
Great first step for gassers!
Direct injection + turbocharging = downsizing. However, am I alone in thinking that a 3.5 liter V6 is not exactly a "small" engine?
I will be more excited to see Ford fully exploit "downsizing" by using sub 2.5 liter 4 cylinder engines rather than big V6's.
This would provide more dramatic gains in efficiency!
Posted by: DieselHybrid | May 2, 2008 6:38:24 AM
If your need is for a five place personal car, how about a large format plug-in Li Ion battery and a simple constant-speed, light-weight, one liter genset?... and you wouldn't need to run the ICE at average commute distances. For normal everyday use turbos are just more weight. And, to be efficient the turbo needs an inter cooler...here comes the weight, space requirement and complications all over again.
Better idea: a simple plug-in BEV, and when you need distance tow the genset with a one wheel bumper attached trailer genset.
Best idea: a simple plug-in BEV with modular battery sections so you can add modules based on distance and finally add the genset trailer for distance trips. This would allow you to customize the car for the daily commute without carrying unnecessary weight.
Posted by: Lad | May 2, 2008 7:13:15 AM
Lad:
I would also like to see a PHEV equipped with a modular baterry systems. A potential for up to four plug-in battery modules (about 5 KWh each) would satisfy many buyers.
The on-board genset size should also be an option. The buyer should be able to select the size (genset-battery modules) combination best suited to his/her needs.
There are no reasons to lug around a heavy 150+ KW genset if a much smaller 20 KW unit (with more batteries) could to the job.
In order to further reduce liquid fuel comsumption, the priority must be given to more on-board batteries (+ supercaps option to capture more breaking energy + better accellerations and to extend batteries life) and much smaller/lighter genset.
Posted by: | May 2, 2008 7:46:51 AM
Consider 1 in 10 cars are replaced every year and then imagine that 1 in 10 of those were PHEV (10% of all new car sales...very optimistic) after 10 years you have 1 in 10 cars a PHEV. (again, very optimistic)
Over the long term this helps, but if PHEV gets twice the mileage that would be a 5% reduction in fuel usage after 10 years. We use 1% more every year, so after 10 years, instead of using 10% more we use 5% more. You can count on new CAFE standards and alternative fuels, so let's say we break even.
I do not mean to be a downer, but when you add it up PHEVs will help, but not cut our oil imports all that much. Behavior, alternatives and technology will have to be combined to make significant reductions in oil imports in the short, medium and long terms.
To me reducing oil imports should be the main goal. It is an unstable situation with world oil supplies and any disruption can cause havoc. We get other benefits like trade balance and the environment, but if there is a major disruption in supply we are in trouble.
Posted by: SJC | May 2, 2008 8:25:04 AM
"However, am I alone in thinking that a 3.5 liter V6 is not exactly a 'small' engine?"
Compared to what goes in RWD cars and trucks right now a 3.5L V6 is small. Most V8s are 4.6L and bigger (mustang and F150) and ford also has the 6.8L V10 (superduty and expedition) which are all gasoline, so comparatively speaking it is quite small.
Posted by: sdb | May 2, 2008 8:32:15 AM
Towing a genset? Please.
It wouldn't sell, even if it were cost competitive.
Posted by: Don | May 2, 2008 9:07:29 AM
The Tzero sports car from AC propulsion had a towed trailer with a 2 cylinder motorcycle engine genset. It was pretty sleek, color coordinated and I think the wheels even steered to make it easier to handle. A trailer and sports car did not seem to go together and I think market acceptance would be mixed at best.
Posted by: SJC | May 2, 2008 9:22:59 AM
People have enough trouble driving as is...if you give them a trailered genset you better have an autonomous driving system as well otherwise I see a lot of jackknifing and trailers hitting curbs (on right hand turns) in the near future for any type of trailered genset sold to the mass market.
Posted by: Patrick | May 2, 2008 9:52:56 AM
FYI: if every LDV in the U.S. had a downsized and turbocharged engine (increase in fuel economy 20%) we would save 1.8 million gallons of gasoline per day.More like 1.8 million barrels per day (~76 million gallons).
Consider 1 in 10 cars are replaced every yearNot that many. The average age of cars at replacement is about 17. However, the typical light vehicle gets half its lifetime mileage in the first 6 years.
Posted by: Reality Czech | May 2, 2008 9:53:35 AM
ET AL:
We should also factor in the emissions when we talk about ICEs; Smaller engines with turbos save fuel; BEVs also save air; I always wonder why people think they can burn chemicals in the atmosphere without consequences. So after dumping the toxins in the air, they spend just about as much as an engine cost to filter the emissions. With BEVs that all goes away and the cleanup can occur at the power plant or the power can be generated using solar energy with no cleanup necessary. We had better get with it and quit depending on fossil fuels else the late great "Earth" will be renamed "Waterworld."
Posted by: Lad | May 2, 2008 10:19:07 AM
Rather than say "consider" perhaps I should have used the word "if". Rather than parse worlds, infer meaning or pretend to know all the facts, I prefer to deal with concepts. The facts can be learned from the net, thinking is left to people that can.
Posted by: SJC | May 2, 2008 12:23:07 PM
@Reality Czech
Good catch. My bad.
Posted by: GreenPlease | May 3, 2008 7:47:44 AM
