Set to make its debut in the Audi SQ7, Valeo's new electric super charge system consists of an electric supercharger which according to the company can reduce fuel consumption by 7% to 20% and it also eliminates most of the lag as the power will be available at a lower rpm according to Green Car Blog on Wednesday.
Valeo says they have a one or two-year lead over other automotive suppliers as far as the supercharger technology is concerned. There are a couple of downsides that need to be taken into consideration as an electric supercharger increases power consumption and is also costlier to produce.
US-based Honeywell says they will launch their own system between 2017 and 2019. They describe it as being an "electrically driven compressor” or an "e-charger" which will be able to provide "very, very good transient response [very low lag] at the low end of the engine speed."
The SQ7 will be the first production car to benefit from this technology and it will be implemented in a V8 diesel engine which is believed to have a 4.0- or 4.2-liter displacement. It will allegedly produce more than 298 kW which will be enough for a 0-100 km/h run in 5.5 seconds. Audi has already confirmed the SQ7 will go on sale sometime next year.
“Systems similar to these hybrid power-trains with electric motors could be used on higher-production, non-performance vehicles tuned more for fuel economy than power and speed,” Andew Wrobel, analyst for HIS Automotive said. BMW has a system on its i8 plug-in hybrid supercar that serves a similar function to Valeo's supercharger. "The BMW i8 has a starter-generator that is able to output 11 hp and 38 foot pounds (51.5 newton meters) during engine startup,” said BMW spokesman Matthew Russell. The starter-generator's output is used to offset perceived lag from the relatively large turbocharger fit to the i8's 1.5-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine, he said.
