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Turbocharge This and Supercharge That

Jeff Bogue • Jan 08, 2020

Turbocharger vs. Supercharger: The On Going Battle

Today everything seems to be Turbo this, Turbo that, Twin Turbo those, and everything in between. The poor supercharger seems to have been cast aside. Or has it? Everybody knows that turbochargers and superchargers add more power, but what is actually going on. Is one better than the other? Why do it in the first place? Let’s take a look at these powerhouse additions to the automobile and see what is happening, when it started, and why.

A turbocharger uses the velocity and heat energy of the exhaust gases rushing out of an engine’s cylinders to spin a turbine that drives a small compressor, or impeller. In turn, more air gets stuffed back into the engine.


A supercharger also pumps additional air into the engine, but it is driven mechanically by the engine via a belt that runs off the crankshaft or by an electric motor. How these two technologies work is quite different, but the end result is pretty much the same. Both are air compressors. Both use this compressing action to force more air into the cylinder before combustion. This enhances the combustion process giving a more vigorous reaction, and the end result is more power per punch.

Slow is the march of progress. In 1860, brothers Philander and Francis Marion Roots, the co-founders of Roots Blower Company of Connersville, Indiana, patented the design for a device to move air for use in blast furnaces and other industrial applications. In 1878 an engineer named Dugald Clerk installed a crude supercharger on a two-stroke engine for testing. In 1885 Gottlieb Daimler received his patent for supercharging internal combustion engines, and from there it was off to the races so to speak. Louis Renault patented his centrifugal supercharger in France in 1902, and in 1908 Lee Chadwick installed a makeshift supercharger on his race car. This vehicle reached speeds in excess of 100 mph in 1908. 1908!! In 1921 Mercedes installed Roots Superchargers on production vehicles and badged them as “Kompressor” models, a series label that has continued to this day.

In 1915 the Swiss Engineer Alfred Buchi patented the first turbocharger. He had been working on the design in his spare time for several years to overcome the decrease in air pressure at higher altitudes in aircraft. Though the idea was sound, the first prototypes proved unreliable and didn’t make it past testing. Renault stepped in and started testing the turbocharger on their aircraft in 1916 and in 1917 in the United States. Tests were conducted for installation on the Liberty Aircraft V12 engine. In 1925 Alfred Buchi took his improved design and installed it on 10 cylinder diesel engines. He boosted the power output of the engine from 1750 hp to 2500 hp and commercial application of the turbocharger took off.


It wouldn’t be long before turbochargers and superchargers were being installed on anything with an engine; aircraft, trains, generators, cars, etc...

The turbocharger is the more efficient of the two systems as it uses “wasted” energy provided by the exhaust system. This system causes some amount of back pressure in the exhaust system and will provide much less boost until the engine is running at higher RPM’s. The power lag and then the higher RPM kick can be a little unsettling as the vehicle will lunge when the turbo hits its efficiency point. Turbochargers are less expensive than their counterparts, but are also much more difficult to install requiring oil lines extensive exhaust piping, intercoolers to cool the heated compressed air, etc. On the flip side, the turbocharger can actually make an engine more efficient, providing greater gains with little or no draw on the power plant.  

The supercharger is pretty much plug and play. It is installed on the top of the engine and does require a belt to drive it. The units are extremely reliable, and give a lot of bang for your buck with fewer modifications to your engine bay. The problem with superchargers is the fact that they require engine power to drive the compressor. The horsepower losses can be felt at the gas pump as some units can require over a hundred horsepower to run but provide over three to four hundred horsepower in return.

Auto manufacturers have decided that the turbo has won the battle. It’s not so much about power but rather fuel efficiency. Federal requirements for ever-improving fuel economy, strict greenhouse-gas emissions standards, and customers’ desire for good fuel mileage have driven carmakers to use turbos rather than superchargers. The turbocharger has enabled automakers to replace a lot of V-6s with more efficient turbocharged inline-fours. These engines provide at least equivalent power and often more torque than their predecessors, while turbo-sixes have replaced many V-8s in higher- performance sport and luxury vehicles. During the 2018 model year there were 220 models offering at least one turbocharged engine versus just 30 available with a supercharged engine. Volvo was the first manufacturer to sell cars in the U.S. market that combine both turbocharging and supercharging to boost engine power. The system is fitted to its top 2.0-liter inline-four engine.


However the battle continues with the introduction of the electric supercharger. The 2019 Mercedes-AMG CLS53 and E53 performance models offer a new, turbocharged 429 hp 3.0-liter inline-six fitted with an electrically driven supercharger that supplements the turbo’s high-rpm boost. An electric motor spins a compressor to provide a burst of low-rpm torque that fills in the gap in power normally felt as turbo lag. Mercedes-AMG is the first manufacturer to incorporate an electric supercharger. BorgWarner, the unit’s manufacturer, says the electric supercharger “delivers boost on demand until the turbocharger takes over, improving boost at low engine speeds and nearly eliminating turbo lag. I call this a win win. While most manufacturers have chosen turbocharging for almost all of their current- production power-boosted engines, the reality is that the battle will wage for some time as we see these technologies work together side by side.


-Jeff Bogue, ATech Product Representative

By Jeff Bogue 12 Dec, 2023
I have been dreaming about and studying engines and engine performance of cars, trucks, and motorcycles for the better part of 45 years. It’s a hobby. It keeps me busy on cold winter evenings. It’s something that has become a large part of my life and, like playing with dogs, is something I love to do. I have written about engines and the engineering that is involved in them for the last 15 years, and I have always been forward-thinking. When a new engine is being lauded by the manufacturers as the next big thing, I read all about it and report those findings here. In the past, I have written about every one of the engines in this article at one time or another, and each one was glowingly revealed by the engineers with the statement “We can expect these engines in our cars in the next few years”. Well, a few years have passed and now most of these engines ARE in our cars and trucks and should be reaching repair shops and dealerships now. We just haven’t heard that much about them because people, as a general rule, really don’t care that much about which engine is in their car if it gets good gas mileage, is reasonably reliable, and has a little umph to get on the highway. Well, that is not us. We care. We study it. It’s what we do and why you are where you are reading this article. Without further ado, let us look at the “Engines of the Future” that you can buy (and service) now.
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