“I don’t think any car that is on Infiniti drawing boards from here onwards we should expect a V-8 to be included in that plan,” Infiniti global president Johan de Nysschen revealed to Car Sales.
The Infiniti exec explained that powertrains have a much longer life cycle than your average car model, so an engine developed today would still have to be viable in the next 15 years or so. With development of V-8s ceasing then, this means that the next-generation of Infiniti cars are unlikely to offer a V-8 option, so cars like the M56 sedan and QX56 SUV are likely to move to V-6 engines with forced-induction or even hybrid technology for their successors.
Interestingly, de Nysschen, who was the former chief of Audi’s U.S. division, predicts that development of V-8 engines at automakers back in Germany will also be coming to an end, sooner rather than later.