After a brief period of dabbling with a 2.3 litre turbocharged i-VTEC engine in the Acura RDX, Honda has now announced a new range of turbocharged engines under the brand name VTEC TURBO, as part of its Earth Dreams Technology range.

The smallest engine is a turbocharged 1.0 litre three-cylinder engine with variable valve management and direct-injection. Next up the rung is a turbocharged 1.5 litre four-cylinder engine, also with variable valve management and direct-injection. No specific horsepower or torque output has been released for now.

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The most interesting engine is the new turbocharged 2.0 litre four-cylinder direct-injection engine, which will make its debut in the new Honda Civic Type R. Honda says the engine will produce over 280 hp and will be Euro 6 emissions-compliant. No torque figure has been mentioned yet.

Of course, other than the i-VTEC turbo in the RDX, Honda has always made turbocharged 660 cc engines for Japanese domestic market cars such as the Honda N-ONE. Nearly every Japanese manufacturer uses them in their JDM K-cars. But these new engines represent a new family that will go into global models.

Honda may be relatively late to the game compared to European manufacturers but who knows, perhaps they took time to inject some Japanese reliability into this engine family.