Did Honda Just Make A Motorcycle Engine With A Turbo?

Honda has just taken the wraps off its newest addition to the motorcycle world — a new and exciting motorcycle engine. It uses a three-cylinder engine in a 75-degree V3 configuration and what they call the world's first electrical compressor for motorcycles. The V-shaped engine has two cylinders up front and one in the rear, as indicated by the exhaust piping on both sides of the engine. The compressor is promising the addition of power and torque at low RPM, but it doesn't use exhaust gases like a turbocharger, nor does it use pulleys like a typical supercharger. Instead, it's powered by electricity — so it's more technically correct to call it an electric supercharger than a turbocharger — but Honda is simply calling it a compressor, so that's what we'll go with too. 

The compressor is compact and placed above the engine and below where the fuel tank would be. It also doesn't require any form of intercooler. Intercoolers are typically used to reduce the temperature of air being pushed into the engine by a turbocharger or supercharger, but Honda says its compressor doesn't need one. This means bulky parts like intercooler piping and the large intercooler itself are unnecessary. So technically, no, it's not a turbocharger, but this is the kind of development that could change the game for Honda motorcycles.

The likelihood of this setup making it into some sort of production bike is pretty high. According to Honda, this engine is being "developed for larger displacement motorcycles," which might suggest its use as a powerplant meant to replace the four-cylinder engines in larger bikes like the CBR1000RR or the CB1000R — the wheels in the photos that they've released definitely look like they belong on some sort of sport bike. With the new V3 engines, the names of those bikes would likely change, but their replacements would fill the same spot in Honda's lineup. In the press release, Honda also says that it "will continue [the engine's] development toward mass production," which could signal a larger shift to updating other bikes with forced induction as well.  

Honda has made turbocharged motorcycles in the past, so this wouldn't be its first foray into forced induction. The CX500 and CX650 for example, are two 1980s-era turbocharged Honda bikes that are seriously cool. Honda has also produced a V3 motorcycle in the past – the NS400R – but this is the first modern V3 from the manufacturer. Honda also filed patents for superchargers on its motorcycles a few years back, which could be part of an overall plan to add forced induction across the lineup. To be clear, this is purely speculation, but it's always fun to imagine what could be possible when you read between the lines.

Currently, supersport motorcycles like the Honda CBR600RR and CBR1000RR are powered by four-cylinder engines, along with several other bikes in the Honda lineup. These four-cylinder engines, especially in sport bikes, make excellent power and speed, with sky-high RPM redlines, but there's a problem. Global emissions standards are changing and they don't favor bikes with large inline-fours.

Without doing a full deep dive on Euro emissions standards, it's sufficient to say that some motorcycle companies are reducing cylinder counts on new bikes to meet modern standards. Yamaha, for instance, has started to reduce cylinder count and eliminate certain bikes from its lineup, slotting in sport bikes like the R7 and R9 where four-cylinder bikes like the R6 and R1 are leaving big performance gaps. (To be clear, the R1 isn't dead yet, but it will be discontinued in Europe soon, with the U.S. likely to follow). Yamaha has replaced four-cylinder engines with two-cylinder and three-cylinder engines, and Honda could be the next motorcycle manufacturer to make that move. If they do drop four-cylinder bikes from the lineup, they'll need something to replace the high-revving power of four-bangers that has lots of power and a fun-to-ride attitude. A torquey V3 with forced induction could be the answer.