Honeywell: US Turbo Market To Double By 2019

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Once the biggest thing in the auto industry in the 1980s, turbocharging is back and screaming for vengeance, with the United States market expected to see double the boost pressure over the next five years.

According to Autoblog, the U.S. is the second-fastest-growing market, with 38 percent of all new vehicles possessing a turbo by 2019 per a forecast by manufacturer Honeywell. The growth is fueled by both the CAFE target of 54.5 mpg by 2025, and consumer demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Mated to ICE engines, turbos provide consumers with gains 20 percent to 40 percent in fuel economy even as the engines themselves shrink in size and cylinder count. On the other hand, adding a turbo boosts the cost of a given vehicle by $1,000 to $2,000. That said, consumers might not mind too much when hybrid power doubles those costs, according to Honeywell senior marketing director Peter Hill.

As for the engines themselves, Hill believes diesel power will follow turbos on the path to growth, going from 3 percent to 7 percent over the same period so long as the infrastructure is there, and differences in diesel fuel taxes are overcome. He adds that diesel power may wane a little in Europe, but expects to make it up with gasoline engines, while China will see the biggest growth, moving from 23 percent now to 41 percent in 2019.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • DenverMike DenverMike on Oct 08, 2014

    When did the use of turbos become the equivalent of SEX is for procreation ONLY!!! (???)

  • Big Al from Oz Big Al from Oz on Oct 09, 2014

    This a pertinent article regarding the future of the motor vehicle. Turbo charging between gasoline and diesel engines are almost chalk and cheese. The advantages of either a turbo gas and turbo diesel is quite varied. The primary advantage of a turbo gasoline engine is the weight and cost of manufacture of the engine. There are other advantages with emissions like NOx. Diesel seems to be a better engine to turbo due to the characteristics of a diesel engine, ie, masses of torque at low rpms. Diesel engines are renown for their longevity. For a gasoline to achieve the same levels of torque at low rpms it will consume a significant amount more fuel, which equals CO2. I did read an interesting document by a British university regarding the direction Ford was heading in regarding naturally aspirated vs turbo gasoline vs turbo diesel. The recommendation was for Ford to go the path of gasoline due to the initial cost of vehicle purchase for the consumer. Consumers are cost conscious at this level of vehicle ownership. The document did state that diesel would of been the best all round option as the future of Ford engines. This was in 2004. Since then you can see that not only Ford, but many manufacturers are indeed going down the path of gasoline. But for how long? Will turbo diesels in the US improve? The EU has altered it's diesel emissions to be closer aligned with the US. I do see the demise of V8s and even turbo V6's down the track. If a F-150 can use a 2.7 litre turbo engine to move a truck, why can't it a few years down the track even use a turbo 2.3 or even a 2 litre turbo diesel.

    • DC Bruce DC Bruce on Oct 09, 2014

      "Clean" diesels have yet to establish themselves as resounding successes, in terms of either reliability or longevity. Just ask any owner of the previous two generations of the Ford Powerstroke diesel. Depending upon how often it has to cycle to burn off the accumulated crud, the diesel particulate filter is something of a fuel sucker. Interestingly, the new 2.7 liter "Ecoboost" gasoline engine from Ford has water-cooled exhaust manifolds to lower exhaust temperatures ahead of the turbos. Perhaps this will avoid running the engine rich (to lower combustion and exhaust temperatures) when approaching full output. Reportedly, this explains the 3.5 liter Ecoboost's higher fuel consumption (by 20%) as compared to any number of n/a gasoline engines doing the same amount of work (i.e. pulling a 10,000 load up a 7% grade for 7 miles). The question of how to clean the intake valves of a DI gasoline engine appears to be somewhat unanswered, on a long term basis.

  • Brock_Landers Brock_Landers on Oct 09, 2014

    quote: Diesel engines are renown for their longevity. That is like saying MB makes the most problem free and highest build quality cars in 2014. The longevity image of diesel engines is from 70's and 80's when most diesels were non-turbo or only the first turbocharged diesel engines started to appear. These engines were very simple and often over-engineered (like most engines of yesteryear). Today's diesel engines are exactly the opposite. To get the best mpg numbers, highest torque and hp numbers and lowest emissions all at the same takes some seriously advanced technologies and engineering. In the longer run this causes high oil consumption, DPF failures, clogged valves, injectors, intakes etc, failing turbochargers (sensitive to oil quality and change intervals) - I could go on and on. If anyone is interested there is a whole bible of failures of VAG TDI engines. And this is 10-15 years ago produced engines which were quite complicated, but nothing like today's latest diesels. http://www.tdiclub.com/TDIFAQ/TDiFAQ-8.html And future engines are not getting any simpler. Second big issue is cost cutting in automotive industry, 30-40 years ago computers were not so advanced, engineers couldn't calculate exactly the longevity and strength of different materials, details and systems, so everything was over engineered just to be safe. Today you can calculate everything so precisely that all the details are durable as they have to be for the amount of money agreed with the supplier, not even 0,001 % more. Maybe the simplest example is intake of the engines - 90's was the last decade when most manufactures still used mostly alloy intakes, now basically all series production cars use plastic intakes. So if you want to buy a new car and use it for more than 3 years, then stay away from turbocharged engines :) Best combination of frugality and longevity would be a japanese made 2.5-3.5L 6 cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine with 6+ speed gearbox. PS! Even EU is going form turbo diesel to turbo petrol engines, because of the strict emissions rules (upcoming Euro 6), which specifically limit the particulate emissions of diesel engines.

    • Jmo Jmo on Oct 09, 2014

      "so everything was over engineered just to be safe." Is that why it was a miracle when a car in the 70s made it to 100k miles? What the frak are you talking about.

  • FJ60LandCruiser FJ60LandCruiser on Oct 09, 2014

    -you have to make them reliable (EcoBoost isn't) -you have to make them take any garbage gasoline so that idiot Americans who are illiterate and can't be bothered to read/understand/notice the instructions on the gas door saying "premium fuel only" and pour high-altitude 85 octane in -cars need dual turbos to fight lag, since only the same kind of morons who think the FR-S is a legitimate sports car will appreciate a car that's a slug until it hits 6500 rpm -diesel trucks don't count, and that's a completely different application of turbocharging -turbos need to be competitively priced to cars with bigger displacement that make similar power -you have to convince that a V6 pickup with an overall untested (Ford doesn't really bother to test the longevity of any of its new technology anymore) gasoline turbo system is better, more reliable, and a bargain compared to a V8 Speculating that "turbos will rule the future" is about as halfassed as saying how the Chinese car demand will rule the American car market in the "near future" (pure nonsense).

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    • Lie2me Lie2me on Oct 09, 2014

      @TrailerTrash "my escape 2.0 single boost has no lag whatsoever…zero. nadda. zilch." Is this true? It's important info to me because one of the things that has made me hesitant in replacing my 2nd gen V6 Escape with a 3rd gen 2.0T Escape is the fear of the dreaded turbo-lag

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