AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
By John O'Dell October 14, 2011
Global automotive components developer Continental Corp. is launching new turbocharger business and said Friday it will be supplying Ford Motor Co. with turbos for the automaker’s new line of three-cylinder engines. The use of smaller engines with power-boosting turbochargers has become a key ingredient in automakers’ push to cut costs and improve fuel efficiency while continuing to deliver the performance characteristics car buyers demand. Continental, which began developing its turbocharger in 2006, said it expects to see 25-percent annual growth in the market. The German components supplier is entering a market dominated by companies such as Honeywell, BorgWarner and Bosch.
But Continental will be competitive, turbo systems chief Udo Schwerdel told AutoObserver in an interview at the recent Frankfurt auto show, because its turbocharger was developed specifically for the small-engine market. It features a unique rotor design and a nickel-free housing and is made in a new automated manufacturing process. All those elements combine, he said, to enable the company to offer reduced cost and improved reliability. While Ford is the first announced customer for the new Continental turbocharger, Schwerdel said his company has a signed agreement with one other major automaker and is aggressively seeking additional clients. “Car companies like to have multiple suppliers,” of critical components, he said.
Gerhard Bohm, head of Continental’s engine systems business unit, said the company sees the small turbocharger as a technology that “will make it possible for modern combustion engines to remain competitive with alternative engines over the long term.” He said that combining turbocharging and direct fuel injection technologies in a gasoline internal combustion engine can improve fuel efficiency by 20 percent.
The Ford deal calls for Continental to supply turbochargers for the automakers new family of small three-cylinder, 1.0-liter engines that initially will be used in Europe in the 2012 Ford Focus and later in the C-Max and the new B-Max multipurpose hatchbacks. Ford plans to bring the engine into its North American lineup as well, but hasn’t said when that would happen. Expansion of the engine’s use would provide Continental’s turbo division with a steady growth stream. Germany’s Schaeffler Group, Continental’s manufacturing partner in the venture, will make the turbochargers at its factory in Lahr, Germany.
John O'Dell: is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.
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