I hope they don't! Turbo power curve is very impressive, if they size the turbo correctly it can build stupid tq off idle and have a fat flat tq curve and overall decent HP. My wifes CRV has the 1.5L earth dreams 4cyl with the turbo and I can feel and hear the turbo spool off idle and its got good acceleration for the small size motor. However Honda is having problems with fuel evaporation on the motor. Forward to something more truck based... the ford eco boosts are one of the worst motors ford ever produced, they make nice numbers new but the mileage isn't great. On top of that the turbos have inherent flaws causing expensive replacement costs before 30k. I had a electrical contractor redo the main panel in a house I was moving into (going from a 1960s 100amp panel to a square D 200amp!) he had a 2017 F150 sport platinum (highest level trim) and it had the eco boost V6. All he did was complain about his truck when he saw my ram and how he's looking to leave ford bc of this truck. The truck had like 40k on it and had the turbos replaced 3 times!!!! Meanwhile he's sitting in my driveway and I can see him burning oil out of his exhaust which he says he took it back to ford and they are refusing to replace the turbos again! My mom got a ford Flex and my father and I made sure she got the NA 6cyl vs the turbo 4 option a few years back bc we knew the turbos would never last and she hasn't had any issues.
Turbo combo's have more failure points, things are more acceptable to wear or miss use. OEM turbo setups are usually pretty well thought out but when you consider all that is involved with a turbo application you've just made the whole system a lot more complex. Just like an engine the turbo has bearings that operate on oil, the oil has to be lubricative enough at certain temps otherwise you can destroy the turbo. So think about the all the people (wife included) who jump in the car and start and if you lucky drive away in 1-2min. The oil that feeds the motor feeds the turbo and the turbo now has to SPOOL with cold motor oil bc it hasn't reached operating temps, then you have to factor in the oil protection film/barrier if its even available to allow the turbo to safely operate not just slow it down. The turbo has seals, bearings, a waste gate controller, a blow off valve, any EGR equipment then all the electronics to allow the system to work as intended (multiple MAP sensors for backup/redundancy). Then you have the cold side which will likely have a intercooler either an A2A or A2W (A2W has more electronics to fail) Thats a lot more failure points than a standard NA motor. Which is why Ford is fighting with so many repairs to there ecoboost lineup, the average person won't wait for the oil to come up to temp to help prolong turbo life, the systems have to contend with too many global variables (hot-cold climates) and the driver.
Also what people don't understand is that ANY gasoline engine will require the same amount of fuel to create the same HP! So a 400hp V8 will consume the same fuel as a 400hp 4cylinder, bc fuel consumption is consistent with output based on HP (NA application) Once BOOST is added fuel consumption increases per HP as the A/F mixture has to be richer to compensate for the added air and cylinder pressure. So a 400HP turbo 4cyl will use more FUEL than a 400hp NA V8... its just the math. The efficiency of a smaller displacement engine and turbo are only benefitted in light throttle cruising when your out of boost which if you use your truck like you should be using it then you will never be out of boost lol.
To hammer the point more with my own real world data. My wife and I drive the same route from CT to NJ to visit family and friends (90mile trip one way or 180 miles round trip) with 90% of it being highway 55+mph. Her car (honda CRV with 1.5L turbo) will average 30-34mpg round trip (her car is smaller, lighter (4k ish lbs) and more aerodynamic) going the same speed and route as we follow each other sometimes. My truck will average 21-24mpg depending on the wind (on summer blend fuel) but weighs 6K lbs and is shaped like a brick and thats in V8 mode ( I turn off MDS ). Her engine is 4.2L smaller than my engine and I have 2k more weight than hers and ALOT less aerodynamics yet we are within 10mpg of each other not to mention her car only makes 180hp I believe at redline. This is not an apples to apples comparison but you get the gist, if everything is equal (HP to HP) the turbo will only be more efficient at light throttle out of boost, MPG will decrease as rpm and boost increases.
Below is a few charts showing how only changing cylinders and going from NA to Turbo affects injector sizing/flow. You can also see is the same V8 NA vs turbo the turbo version still requires more fuel to make the same power. If Ram goes with a turbo 6cyl I will not be buying that ram for all the reason above.
The HP difference will prob make for the lack of proper V8 sound so the bigger that HP difference the better. At least in my humble opinion/
