Porsche V8s to continue, but rumbling war cry to be muzzled

Porsche has confirmed its thumping twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine will survive beyond this decade and into the 2030s – but the noise it makes is set to be heavily curtailed.

Although the V8 will live on for the next generation of Porsche sports cars, its iconic basso profundo acoustics will be neutered as drive-by noise limitations take their toll.

Indeed, impending emissions regulations are set to limit more than just CO2, as Porsche’s Panamera model line boss, Thomas Freimuth, explained to carsales at last weekend’s Australian F1 Grand Prix.

“Even in the Panamera, for example, we have to deal with other regulations … about the exhaust noise level … it’s going down and down and down and down over the years and this also makes it more complicated to get a good emotion to our Panamera V8,” said Freimuth.

Even without a rumbling, crackling war cry, Freimuth stressed that Porsche won’t ditch its V8, confirming development is already underway to meet Euro 7 emissions regulations that come into effect in July 2030.

“We know this engine is ready for EU7, it’s no problem. We have to add some parts which are in development, so we are ready with this V8 to go to the EU7 regulations,” he said.

“This will be also possible without [a] hybrid system because they changed [EU7 regulations] a little bit,” he added.

But as sports car brands like Porsche face the music, literally, with their combustion engines, Freimuth admitted the lack of emotion in high-performance electric cars is another concern.

“We have to learn how to bring those [V8-like] emotions into our electric cars because the far future is electric so we have to find a solution for that,” he said.

Porsche will switch the next-generation Cayenne large SUV to all-electric powertrains by 2026 and reckons that more than 80 per cent of its sales will be for electric cars by 2030, so the pressure is on to develop synthesised car sounds that satisfy customers.

“We're working on it, you see it in the Taycan and there are big steps which we need to go. I think, for example, the V8 is all over the world … that's where we are looking for emotional [inspiration], especially noises in the car, it’s very important,” said Freimuth.

Hyundai has shown that emotion can be injected into EVs, evidenced in the tyre-shredding IONIQ 5 N that mimics engine revving and even pops, crackles and backfires.

But the vast majority of high-performance electric vehicles available today emit fairly benign acoustics.

Asked if Porsche could bridge the gap and find a happy medium between the classic V8 and the ultra-modern EV, Freimuth was cautiously optimistic.

“I hope we can. We are working on it, to get much more emotions into the electric cars,” he said.

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