Gasgoo.com (Shanghai July 15) - In November 2014, Toyota introduced a turbocharged engine amid the mega trend of widespread use of it in China, followed by other Japanese automakers like Honda and Nissan. The trend has taken up long time ago and these Japanese companies didn’t join in owing to their quite conservative development strategy.
Upon Toyota installing a direct-injection turbocharged engine in its Lexus NX, it reported sales growth right from the launching month till present, with an average sales growth of 72% for the seven months from November 2014 to May 2015. And the same miracle happened to Highlander from GAC Toyota, with more than 40,000 accumulative orders from March 20 till present.
With the launching of the lightly changed Auris, Toyota has launched a 1.2T direct-injection turbocharged engine in Japan with the maximum power of 85kW/5200-5600rpm, which will be widely used in the portfolio of Toyota. The portfolio may include Vios, Corolla both old and new version, Levin and RAV4.
Following Toyota, Honda also has formed a plan to introduce 1.0T、1.5T and 2.0T turbocharged engines into the Chinese market probably in the models of Honda Fit, New City, Vezel, Civic, Accord, Spirior and so on.
Nissan joins the line of adding turbocharged engines, too. In the year earlier, Dongfeng Nissan launched a new model named Infiniti Q50L with 2.0T turbocharged engine, challenging Benz C-segment car, BMW 3 series and Cadillac ATS-L. In May, its sales surged to 3,969 units, ranking high among equivalences.
Nissan possessed a 1.6T turbocharged engines in Tiida GTS and another 1.2T turbocharged engine will be introduced soon in the latest Qashqai and Micra, with the maximum power of 85kw.
