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Forced induction is when air is compressed before your intake to provide your engine with greater horsepower, torque, and even fuel economy. Turbocharging is a method of forced induction that utilizes your exhaust gases to compress more air for your engine. Supercharging, another standard method of forced induction, uses a pulley system and the power from your engine to compress air. The problem with both of these forced induction systems is that they usually require thousands of dollars in parts, labor, and fuel injection tuning to function correctly. Electric superchargers aim to make forced induction easy as they are cost-effective and relatively simple to install.

To understand how electric superchargers work, one must first understand the principles of forced induction. Auto manufacturers who want powerful and efficient cars with smaller-displacement motors typically use forced induction. Forced induction is based on the fact that the more air and fuel you can get to an engine, the more horsepower you will make. Forced induction, like electric superchargers, allow an engine to burn more fuel by packing more air into your engine’s cylinders. These gas compressors are turbochargers, superchargers, or electric superchargers that are sometimes intercooled to lower their air temperature. On a forced induction engine, one of these types of gas compressor will increase the intake pressure, temperature, and density. The increase in pressure provided by systems like electric superchargers is known as boost. Most forced induction systems, including electric superchargers, provide at least 8 pounds per square inch of boost. The amount of power you will make with boost is relative to the pressure in our atmosphere. At sea level, the atmospheric pressure is usually 14.7 pounds per square inch, so it can be said that a standard forced induction system like electric superchargers making 8 pounds per square inch will add about 50 percent more horsepower to your typical engine.

Forced induction systems such as electric superchargers add superior power to a vehicle without the need to add a larger and heavier motor. However, typical forced induction systems, such as turbochargers or supercharges have one problem; the power they provide to the motor is dependent on the motor. On a turbocharged system, exhaust gasses are sent through your exhaust manifold and collected into a turbine. This turbine spins the compressor wheel that compresses intake air and creates boost at the cost of your engine having to produce more power to spin it. In a supercharged forced induction system, intake air is compressed via a compressing mechanism that is driven by a belt from your engine, much like your air conditioner, power steering pump, or alternator. Regardless of the type of supercharger (excluding electric superchargers) the downside to them is that they rob power from the crankshaft of your engine to drive their compressors. Superchargers are notoriously known to cause extra strain on your crankshaft, pistons, and rods.

The reason electric superchargers are advantageous is that they do not require any additional power from the engine to function nor is there any added strain on the internals. Electric superchargers function in much the same way as turbochargers or superchargers in that they compress air before the intake to provide more air inside of your engine’s cylinders. The compressors of electric superchargers are driven by electric motors that use the 12-volt power from your alternator, battery, or a system of high-powered lithium ion batteries. Because your engine is not working harder to power them, electric superchargers require no modification to your fuel system to run at standard boost levels. However, if you want to increase boost it is always recommended that you get larger injectors and some form of fuel injection tuning.

The reason turbochargers and superchargers are not used in every vehicle is because the plumbing and drive systems required to use them are very costly. Electric superchargers are the way of the future because they provide forced induction at a fraction of the cost of a conventional forced induction setup without robbing any of your engine’s power. Most electric superchargers do not run hot enough to need an intercooler; therefore they can usually be simply placed after your intake filter to provide your engine with boost. You can expect that electric superchargers will be the forced induction choice for the vehicles of tomorrow.