Three cylinders and an electric supercharger are likely to go into mass production!

Honda has confirmed that it’s developing a radical V3 engine for a future range of ‘larger displacement’ motorcycles – complete with an electric supercharger to provide a broad spread of torque even from low revs.

It’s a radical solution and Honda isn’t giving too much away yet, but every indication is that the engine is destined for production sooner, not later, starting a new era.

What do we know so far? The engine is a 75-degree V3, with two cylinders at the front and one at the rear, with the electric supercharger nestling above the front bank, just behind the steering head. The bare chassis of the concept means we don’t know how Honda will arrange the airbox and intake to feed that supercharger, but the idea of using a battery-powered booster rather than an engine-driven one is that its speed and boost pressure isn’t limited by the engine revs. That means pressure can be built before you need it, and there’s zero lag.

The blower itself is a centrifugal design, where boost is defined by its turbine speed, rather than a Roots or screw-type compressor. This makes sense as centrifugal superchargers are more efficient.

Honda hasn’t indicated the engine’s capacity, but its external dimensions suggest it could be in the region of 1000cc. How much power such an engine could make would depend on a huge number of variables, including revs, bore and stroke, and the boost pressure of the supercharger. But by using forced induction, Honda is freed of the usual need to find lots of rpm to extract maximum performance. In turn, that helps meet emissions rules, which are angled to favour lower-revving engines with tamer valve timing.

Honda also points out that the electric supercharger needs none of the plumbing associated with an exhaust-driven turbocharger and can do without an intercooler to reduce the charge temperature. All this simplifies the packaging and reduces the overall weight.

In terms of usage going forwards, Honda says it “plans to apply the new V3 engine to larger-displacement models in the future and will continue its development toward mass production”. Stay tuned!