Forced induction such as Turbocharging has been the common practice for car manufacturers in reducing emission and fuel consumption. As for motorcycles, turbocharging has been in use since the 80s by a number of motorcycles manufactures too. In the 80s Kawasaki’s Z1R TC started the love for spooling in motorcycles. Later the Honda CX500 Turbo and Yamaha’s XJ650T followed the trend.
According to Motorcycle News, Yamaha started developing turbocharging technology back in 2007 and has experimented with two layouts. The first configuration is a bit unusual with the turbocharger directly inside the exhaust. As for the second configuration, Yamaha tried out the conventional layout with the turbocharger close to the exhaust manifold. However, the sources suggest Yamaha chose the second more convenient layout for cost-cutting and packing purposes.
The purpose of Yamaha developing a range of the turbocharged engine is to inject more power without lowering emission regulations. According to sources, Yamaha is currently in the final stage of development and the first turbocharged Yamaha motorcycle is expected to roll in by 2021.
In case you didn’t know, in April last year, Yamaha filed a patent application for a turbocharged parallel-twin engine. This engine was actually based on Yamaha MT-09’s 847cc three-cylinder engine. Changing the three-cylinder engine to a two-cylinder engine reduces the capacity to 565cc; which is slightly smaller than the MT-07’s 689cc twin-cylinder engine. However, adding a turbocharger to the parallel-twin engine boosts up the power by 30% at least. Although the new engine’s capacity is lower, at lower speeds the turbocharged engine leads to lower emission level and better fuel efficiency.
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