Eli5: why do diesel engines tend to be turbocharged rather than supercharged or even N/A?
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Diesel engines can work without Boost, but in terms of efficiency they work much better with higher pressure intake air. Diesels work by combusting fuel with high pressure and hot air, so the more high pressure air you have the better.
Superchargers are less efficient on Diesels because they tend to run at lower RPMs. Superchargers also rob power from the engine.
While a turbo is powered by exhaust which diesels make plenty of. It doesn’t rob power from the engine and can be tuned to kick in at lower RPMs.
There are supercharged diesels of course, it’s just that Turbo’s in general tend to be a more efficient way of generating boost.
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