During the last Geneva Motor Show, Peter Mertens, Audi's director of research and development, made it known, in statements to the press, that not only would the Audi R8 (very likely) not have a successor, but also the current Audi A8 would be the last model of the brand to come equipped with a 12-cylinder engine.
We won't have 12 cylinders forever. There are customers who really want the 12-cylinder, are happy with it and are going to have it. But this will be your last installation.
This means that the W12 — which has been with the A8 since its first generation — will still have a few years to live, until the end of the current generation's commercial career. But after this generation, the W12 will disappear from the brand's catalogs.
It will be the end of the W12 at Audi, but not the end of the engine itself. This will continue to be a constant presence at Bentley — the British brand has been solely responsible, since 2017, for the continuous development of this engine — as its customers, in certain parts of the world, continue to favor the number of cylinders in this engine, compared to other options.
As we reported recently, the Audi R8 also has no planned successor. But the end of his commercial career will also mean the end of his glorious V10 in the brand. Engine that came to equip some S and RS models of the brand, no longer makes sense when, at the moment, there is the versatile and powerful 4.0 V8 twin turbo for this task.
More engines will “fall”
Peter Mertens — one of the architects, in his previous role, of the dramatic simplification of platforms and engines at Volvo — says that more engines are likely to “fall” at the Volkswagen group in the coming years. But why?
For two reasons, essentially. The first is the growing focus on electrification, which forces us to reduce the dispersion of resources applied to conventional engines. The second has to do with the WLTP, that is, the new consumption and emissions certification cycle that places greater emphasis on real driving conditions, and considerably increases the work on the part of builders in this process.
Think of all the engine and transmission combinations that have to be homologated. It is really a lot of work that we are having.
Mertens' experience at Volvo will be valuable at Audi. we have to simplify : either reducing the number of engines available or reducing the number of possible combinations between engines and transmissions. A process that no brand will be immune from.