The Current A8 Will Be The Last Audi With A W12

It might come as a surprise to you, but you will eventually be able to have the current Audi A8 with a W12. Yep, among all the obvious options like petrol and diesel V6s and the Porsche co-developed twin-turbo V8 in the S8, VW Group’s quirky 6.0-litre, 12-cylinder engine will join the line-up.

The engine - which effectively joins together two narrow-angle ‘V6’ VR6 blocks together at a 72-degree angle to form a ‘W’ arrangement - seems like a bit of an anachronism in today’s climate of downsizing and electrification, but sure enough, it won’t be in the Audi line-up for much longer.

Audi R&D chief Peter Mertens is quoted by Car and Driver as saying: “There are customers who really want the 12-cylinder and they are happy with it and are going to get it. But this is going to be the last installation.”

The engine will live on to some extent in various Bentley products - for how long we can’t be sure. We can expect more larger-capacity VW Group engines to be dropped too, largely thanks to the more stringent Worldwide Harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (or WLTP, since you’ll struggle to remember all that).

“Think of every engine and transmission combination that has to be homologated. That’s a hell of a job we are doing,” Mertens said. If you’re thinking that means engines like Audi’s legendary 5.2-litre V10 are at risk, you’d be right. Mertens insisted that performance cars are here to stay in Audi’s line-up, but long-term they are - as you’d expect - more likely to be electrified rather than packing big internal combustion engines.