History of turbocharger is almost as old as internal combustion engines. Between the years 1885 and 1896, Gottlieb Daimler and Rudolf Diesel studied the compression of intake air in order to increase engine power and decrease fuel consumption. In 1925 Swiss scientist Alfred Bchi was the fist to successfully manufacture a turbo unit using exhaust gas and he obtained 40% power increase. This made the official entrance of turbocharger into the automotive industry.

First turbocharger applications could only be made on very large engines (e.g. marine engines and in automotive sector, touring engines). In 1938 first turbocharger unit engine for trucks was created by "Swiss Machine Works Saurer" company.

Chevrolet Corvair Monza and Oldsmobile Jetfire were launched in 1962/1963 as the first turbo unit passenger cars. Despite their high power yield, low safety of the turbo unit of both vehicle caused them be withdrawn from market quickly.

After the first oil crisis in 1973 turbocharger idea was more widely accepted. Up to that time high investment cost of turbocharger could only balance with low fuel consumption to some extent. Later emission regulations became much stricter and use of turbocharger in truck engines increase and today all truck engines being manufactured support turbocharger.

In 70s turbocharger unit was introduced into motor sports and especially Formula 1, and use in passenger cars gained popularity. The word “Turbo” became fashionable. In those times nearly all automobile manufacturers had at least one model with turbocharger unit. However this phenomenon diminished in following years due to high fuel consumption. Also the delayed activation of turbo unit, known as “Turbo-lag”, was quite long then, and this was criticized by many customers.

First real performance of turbocharger unit was with the turbocharger unit diesel engine developed by Mercedes-Benz in 1978. This was followed by VW Golf Turbodiesel in 1981. Due to the turbocharger units of these vehicles engine efficiency increased significantly and fuel consumption and emission values were reduced.

Today success of turbocharger unit is not only in the performance perspective but also in environment conscious perspectives due to the reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. In summary, principle idea of turbocharger unit is the use of exhaust engine and reduction of fuel consumption and emissions.