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One of the final bastions of 12 cylinders says the iconic engine has only a few years left to live in road cars – barring a U-turn in global emissions regulations.
V12 power in road-legal Aston Martin supercars is set to be a thing of the past within five years amid tightening emissions regulations around the world.
Each new set of emissions rules over the past few decades have threatened the V12, but every time car brands have managed to develop cleaner versions that can remain in showrooms.
The global CEO of the British car maker, Adrian Hallmark, told Asia-Pacific media including Drive time is finally running out on 12-cylinder propulsion in road cars.
"It's a moving target that we can't be absolutely definitive about. [It has until] 2028 if nothing changed," said Hallmark, who joined Aston Martin from Bentley last year.
However, he said V12 power could stay in showrooms until the end of the decade if they are built in very small numbers, making them eligible for exemptions from more stringent emissions.
"There are two degrees of freedom. [In the] legislation, we can often get derogation for low volumes. So if we were building 100,000 12-cylinders a year, it is 2028.
"But if we're importing 150 to 300 into the US, we can even apply for derogation on low volumes – and the same in Europe. And then you've even got single vehicle type approval options.
"I would say realistically between 2028 and 2030 [until the V12 must be dropped]. If nothing else changes, it's stable volume until end of 2028, and then niche volumes thereafter.
"There's always opportunities and we're still looking at how can we extend the life of 12-cylinder [engines] through emissions development activity as we speak. But end of the decade is pretty much the end of 12-cylinder [engines] as we currently see."
Hallmark says customers are "absolutely" gravitating to the new Vanquish for its engine, a 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 developing 614kW.
"I think [Ferrari] Purosangue is another great example of that final push from customers for the pinnacle of powertrains," the top executive said.
Aston Martin also sells a V12 – a 6.5-litre non-turbo unit – in the F1-inspired Valkyrie hypercar (below), but it has ended production after all 275 examples were built.
The Vanquish uses an in-house engine – rather than the Valkyrie's Cosworth-designed motor – and it's the most powerful twin-turbo V12 the company has offered, despite emissions rules being at their most stringent.
The end date for V12 Aston Martins, at least for the road, was previously set at 2026 or 2027 by one of Hallmark's predecessors, former AMG boss Tobias Moers.
"It depends on the regulations. You’re not going to create a new V12; that’s not going to happen," Moers told US website Motor1 in 2022.
"So we keep the V12, we do small tweaks on the V12, but if it's 2026 or 2027, it doesn’t matter."
Since then, Europe's inbound Euro 7 emissions regulations have been tweaked and delayed, seemingly extending the life of the iconic engine type.
"We will produce naturally-aspirated V12s until the law will [no longer] allow us to," Emanuele Carando, Ferrari's head of product marketing, told Australian media last year.
"We hope the law in the future will continue to show opportunities [for V12s] … [such as possibly] working on new [synthetic] petrol, which is more sustainable."
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
