After Chinese manufacturers began making serious inroads into the empty mecca of the Russian car market, domestic car enthusiasts became generally familiar with turbocharged engines and their main drawback: so-called turbo lag, or turbo lag. To eliminate this turbo lag, manufacturers use a multi-turbo configuration where a small turbine operates at low engine speeds and a large turbine operates at high engine speeds.
Image source: ChatGPT.
But as you know, all of this drastically increases the cost of the unit and makes maintenance and repairs very complicated, so it was and still is a part of high-end cars. For example, in order to essentially eliminate turbo lag, Ferrari car buzzobtained the innovative triple turbocharging patent.
This patented technology works like this: At low speeds, it uses two compressors driven by electric motors to force air into the cylinders, and at high speeds, it uses a conventional turbocharger. At the same time, the adjustment of the operation of the electric compressor makes the above-mentioned turbo lag almost completely eliminated in this solution: the small compressor continues to pump air even after the conventional turbine has reached its operating speed.
Overall, the idea is not new, and today’s automakers are increasingly using electric compressors. What is unique about Ferrari’s patent is simply the arrangement of the three supercharging elements. It remains to be seen whether it’s more effective than less cumbersome and complicated options, and whether it’s worth it.