The V12 staggers on its pedestal and now it looks like BMW is going to say goodbye to the big internal combustion engine too. The current 7 series is said to be the last with a twelve-cylinder.
Is there or is not a future for the V12 in (German) luxury cars? It is a question that has occupied the fans for years. Six months ago, Mercedes-Benz, through Daimler CEO Ola Källenius, gave the ‘reassurance’ that the new S-class will come again with a V12. Also, the V12 from BMW would not disappear from the offer for the time being, it was suggested a year ago. However, that is not what the men and women of the German BMW medium Bimmertoday have understood. Reportedly, the curtain falls for the twelve-cylinder next fall. The reason can be guessed: the ever stricter CO2 requirements imposed by the European Union. For the Asian market, BMW would continue with the V12 a bit longer. There is quite a lot of demand for the largest engine and the Brussels legislation obviously has no hold on that market.
Currently, the 6.6-liter biturbo V12 can still be found in the 7 series (M760Li) and the X7 may also get the enormous engine for a while. In addition, there is another important customer of the BMW V12s: daughter brand Rolls-Royce. The V12 is still available for a significant part of the British offer. Still, it’s not unlikely that Rolls-Royce can live with the end of the V12. After all, the brand already looked forward to a fully electric future three years ago. There is therefore a chance that a stock of V12s will be stocked at BMW, but that there will no longer be an internal combustion engine for the next generations of the models.