Audi is Probably Done Designing New V8s: Report
Audi’s commitment to building a green, electrified nirvana likely means future V8s will have to die, a source within the company claims.
The source told Autocar that development of future V8 families is unlikely, given Audi’s plan to have 25 to 35 percent of its rolling stock go all-electric by 2025.
“It would be very difficult to justify the huge investment in another new V8 because of the cost of developing electric drivetrains and battery packs,” the source said. “You have to ask what is the best use of investment money.”
Volkswagen Group plans a big foray into battery electric vehicles as part of its 2025 plan, and the Audi brand will play a large role in that shakeup. High-end EVs sell better (for now, anyways), and the price premium placed on luxury models offsets the higher cost of the powertrain.
Already, the automaker plans to offer an all-electric Q5 and another crossover EV slotted above that model. After 2018, the brand aims to introduce a new battery electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid model each year.
That means the current 4.0-liter family, which has only just emerged in diesel form in the 2017 Audi SQ7, could be the last. The diesel version of that mill uses two turbochargers and an electric supercharger (to get those turbos up to speed, eliminating lag), generating 435 horsepower and 664 pounds-feet of torque. Gasoline versions are bound for the upscale marques in the Volkswagen stable.
The continually refined 4.2-liter V8, which can trace its lineage back to 1991, is a dead man walking, doomed by Audi’s growing use of turbo sixes and the looming gas 4.0-liter. After being quietly shuffled out of the engine bays of its former friends (A4, A6, A8), the 4.2-liter will disappear from the RS5 when the second generation bows next year.
Audi will have the ability to source V8s from Porsche, after the sportscar maker announced plans today to produce V8s for all Volkswagen Group brands at its newly upgraded engine plant in Germany.
[Image: Audi]
Comments
Join the conversation
The V8 engine in 2016 is what the silver-halide based film system was in 1996 ... a technology on its way to micro-niche markets. Any technology which finds itself in a market battle with rapidly advancing electronics has lost out every single time over the past 50 years. ICE engines are at the early stages of such a displacement. Audi's current V8 engines are already highly developed. Further development would cost massive amounts of money for minimal improvements. VAG is wise to shift their investment plans.
This doesn't mean that Audi won't offer a V8 (will use Porsche's) - just that they won't develop their own. MB will continue to develop a 12 cylinder power-plant, much less an 8 cyl for the time being, so Audi will at least have to offer an 8 cyl for its top-line models.