Mercedes Decides Eight is Great, After All

It’s no secret this industry is moving towards smaller displacement engines, with power adders cropping up on machines of all shapes and sizes as part of an effort to meet fuel economy and emission regs while maintaining the level of power to which we’ve become accustomed.

Last summer, Mercedes-Benz indicated they were dropping V8 engines from their lineup, favoring smaller mills for a myriad of reasons. Someone in a corner office has evidently had a rethink, as it has been confirmed there will be Mercs with eight cylinders in the 2022 model year after all.

According to reports by those in the know, certain models of the Mercedes-Benz lineup are open for ordering and have the option of a twin-turbo V8 engine. Namely, GLE and GLS rigs are on tap, plus the big daddy G-Wagen. It’ll not escape your notice these are all hulking (and profitable) SUVs.

As our own Matt Posky noted last year when the company announced the death of their V8 lineup, reasons for the move were cloudy, with official spox vacillating between blaming the move on regulatory hurdles and some sort of quality issue. The latter was odd, given the use of Mercedes V8s in other applications and the apparent realization that octopots would be offered in other markets.

But life comes at you fast, it seems. There is a case to be made that well-heeled customers on this side of the pond balked at the concept of paying big bucks for vehicles powered by six cylinders, no matter the level of horsepower. As most of us well know, appearances are everything to some people – especially in certain social circles – and there may have been customer or dealer feedback driving this reversal.

Or maybe Mercedes simply found a cache of V8s they forgot about in a German warehouse.

[Image: Mercedes-Benz]