BorgWarner Turbocharges Production Plans

The Board of Directors of BorgWarner Inc. has approved investments of approximately US$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 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.
“With new business awards, additional capacity is essential to meet customer demands for our turbocharger technology,” said Tim Manganello, BorgWarner Chairman and CEO.
“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.
“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.”
North America: 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 to supply a major North American gasoline direct-injected engine program.
Europe: 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.