Emissions regulations and drive-by noise limitations are making it harder than ever for brands to keep the old-school V8 engine alive, but Porsche thinks it’ll be able to do just that into the 2030s.
Thomas Freimuth, head of the Porsche Panamera model line, told media the turbocharged V8 in the current Panamera (and Cayenne) could live on without hybrid augmentation – despite looming Euro 7 emissions standards.
“[Based on] all we know, this engine is ready for Euro 7. It’s no problem,” Mr Freimuth told media.
“We have to add some parts which are in development, so we are ready with this V8 to go to the Euro 7 regulations we think will come,” he said. “This will be also possible without a hybrid system.”
The European Parliament earlier this month passed new emissions regulations which largely mirror the existing ones, following pushback from carmakers. Reuters reports the new rules will apply to cars and vans from July 2030, and to buses and trucks from July 2031.
The V8 in the Panamera is a 4.0-litre twin-turbo unit, a version of which is shared with the larger Cayenne SUV.
In the Panamera, it’s mated with a complex plug-in hybrid system good for combined outputs of 500kW and 930Nm. In the Cayenne S it’s offered without hybrid augmentation, and pumps out 349kW of power and 600Nm of torque.
Mr Freimuth said the emotion of the engine is a key part of its appeal, especially as the world starts to go electric.
Electric… 
…and petrol 
Petrol… 
…and electric
“In general, the emotions of a combustion engine is very important to Porsche. It doesn’t matter if it is a flat-six, or a V6, or a V8, because they are all different and the customers love the different kinds of emotions,” he told media.
“We have to learn how to bring these emotions into our electric cars, because the far future is electric, and we have to find a solution for that. We are working on it, you can see it in the Taycan and there are big steps which we need to go.
“I think the V8 is, all over the world, the engine … where we are looking for emotional things, especially noises in the car are very important.”
Porsche has been a vocal advocate for alternative CO2-cutting technologies to electric vehicles, championing eFuels as a cleaner way to keep internal-combustion vehicles on the road.
