GWM’s flat-eight engine could power cars – report

As the rest of the automotive industry has been phasing out eight-cylinder engines, China’s GWM has been doing the opposite.

Now, it is considering utilising its unusual horizontally opposed eight-cylinder engine in its cars.

GWM originally unveiled a 2.0-litre flat-eight engine at the 2024 Beijing motor show in 2024, and followed it up with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 the following year.

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But while the V8 was created to be used in its range of off-road vehicles – potentially the Tank 300,500, and 700 – the flat-eight ‘boxer’ engine was originally designed for the company’s Souo S2000 touring motorcycle.

“We can put this [eight-cylinder] engine in other vehicles in the future,” a spokesperson for GWM told US publication Car and Driver.

“This is not just for motorcycles… it’s for cars.”

The 2.0-litre eight-cylinder engine produces approximately 115kW of power and 190Nm of torque, though it’s not clear whether its displacement will be enlarged for its use in cars. At this stage, GWM has not hinted at which model or models the flat-eight will be fitted to.

Technically speaking, unlike ‘boxer’ engines produced by typical Subaru and Porsche models – in which the pistons appear like a boxer punching gloves together – the GWM engine uses a different configuration, where one piston moves inwards as the other moves outwards.

This makes it more closely related to a V8 engine, except the cylinders lie in a 180-degree configuration, rather than the traditional 90-degree ‘V’ shape.

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