Company History
The original Borg-Warner Corporation was formed in 1928 by the merger of Warner Gear, which itself was founded in 1901, and Borg & Beck with roots to 1904, along with two other companies. The company was best known as the supplier of Warner Gear overdrive units for cars of the 1930s to the 1970s, and as the developer of Ford's Ford-O-Matic three-speed automatic transmission introduced in 1950, along with 'Holley' brand Borg & Beck carburetors.
The company is also notable for co-developing a variable-geometry turbocharger with Porsche, the Variable Turbine Geometry (VTG) system, used in the 2007 911 Turbo. BorgWarner claims this technology will reach mainstream cars within 10 years. From 2002, Peugeot, Ford and Renault became major customers for the company's turbochargers with the Volkswagen Group on-board since 1999, choosing to exclusively use the BorgWarner K-Series turbochargers for their then-new 1.8T power plant.
BorgWarner is currently the leading supplier of wet clutches and hydraulic modules for dual clutch transmission systems. With their DualTronic technology, BorgWarner has gained contracts with European automakers that want to use dual clutch transmissions. The German automotive concern Volkswagen Group is BorgWarner's largest customer (by sales), and Europe is their largest market. Light vehicles (automobiles, car-derived vans, and light commercial vehicles) account for 72% of BorgWarner's total sales.
The company's World Headquarters is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Robert S. Ingersoll formerly served as the company's CEO and Chairman. BorgWarner's Powertrain Technical Center (PTC) is also based in Auburn Hills.
The BorgWarner Indianapolis 500 Trophy is presented to the winner of the annual Indianapolis 500 auto racing event; this has been provided by the company since 1936, as a legacy of Louie Schwitzer who won the first automobile racing event held at the facility, in 1909. It was announced by the Izod Indycar Series that BorgWarner has been selected as the official supplier for the turbochargers to be used in the 2.2L turbocharged engine formula for the series which takes effect in 2012.
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