The increasingly rare 12-cylinder engine is one of the last living dinosaurs in the world of automotive propulsion, and Mercedes-Benz has no intention of letting it go extinct, at least not for the next decade or so. That’s according to CTO Markus Schäfer, who offered his vaguely optimistic outlook at the Munich auto show. From Autocar:
Speaking at the Munich motor show on Monday, tech boss Markus Schäfer confirmed that Mercedes “will continue to offer V12s”. When asked about the unit being EU7-compatible, Schafer said “I will not say more, but it is coming”, strongly hinting that it will remain available in Europe. He did not, however, give any details on how Mercedes would make the V12 compliant with the new rules, nor did he confirm which model lines would use the engine.
Currently the only Mercedes product that uses the V12 engine is the Maybach S-Class, where it’s a $37,250 premium over the standard V8. (Mercedes also produces the V12 for Pagani, which currently uses it in the Utopia.) The Maybach would be the most likely model for the V12 to be used in, but of course we’d love to see it brought back in other cars too.
Commitment to displacement
Autocar also spoke with Michael Schiebe, who heads up Mercedes’ AMG performance division, who gave insight into the future of the Mercedes-Benz combustion engine in general:
Schiebe said the brand will continue with them “as long as possible, where regulations allow”.
He said: “Of course, in the US, in Europe, the regulation is that you cannot sell combustion engines any more from 2035, and we have to comply with that. But there are other markets at the moment [where] I don’t expect them to have such a regulation in place [such as the Middle East and China]. So we could still continue to sell those engines there in those markets as long as customer demand continues.”
The way things are going in the U.S. and Europe, he may have spoken too soon. We seem to be re-embracing combustion at a pretty brisk pace, and those 2035 targets seem less likely to stick with every passing day, even in more EV-ready Europe. Mercedes is keeping itself generally committed to combustion engines as regulations take on a retro quality in markets such as the U.S. and the EV transition slows. We’ve already heard that the carmaker will phase out the plug-in-hybrid four-cylinder found in the C63 and GLC63 and go with either an inline-six option or a newly developed V8 that will debut soon and meet those EU7 regulations. But the company is still committed to electric vehicles, with the vast majority of its upcoming models to be EV-only, or at least offer an electric powertrain as an option.
This shows that Mercedes is aware that old-school powerplants have staying power in the premium, luxury, and high-performance segments, especially in growth markets such as China. It also indicates that the company might have concluded it can go back to the future because it has sufficient EV and combustion alternatives to satisfy future regulatory regimes and cover itself for overall emissions targets. With compliance strategies returning to picture in the auto industry, the V12 and its smaller, once-endangered ilk may have received a reprieve from their demise.
