VW Reportedly Developing New Twin-Turbo VR6 Engine with Up to 450 HP

Volkswagen is working on a new narrow-angle V6 direct-injection gasoline engine, a report citing sources from the carmaker’s engineering headquarters claims.

AutoWeek reports the new powerplant is being developed at VW’s Braunschweig engineering headquarters under the supervision of the carmaker’s new head of engine development, Fritz Eichler. He has previously worked for Mercedes AMG and has been responsible for the development of the current generation of AMG engines.

The new VR6 engine has a 3.0-liter displacement, with the two banks of cylinders being disposed at a tight 15-degree angle. This ensures that the size of the engine remains as compact as possible. Another reason for this is that the unit has been conceived for transverse mounting.

However, unlike VW‘s previous naturally aspirated VR6 engines (which have been mounted on the VW Golf R32, Passat R36 and CC VR6, among other models), the new unit will feature forced induction, with sources saying it will have a twin-turbocharged setup.

That’s precisely the engine that the VW Design Vision GTI study had under the hood. Revealed at this year’s GTI Meet in Worthersee, the concept featured a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 engine with a narrow angle design producing 496hp (503PS) and 560Nm (413 lb-ft) of torque between 4,000 and 6,000 rpm.

However, production versions of the engine will be less powerful, likely between 340hp and 450hp. That’s well above the most powerful version of the original VR6 family, the 295hp 3.6-liter engine in the Passat R36.

The new twin-turbocharged VR6 engine will be used on future VW models including the next-generation Passat, CC, Scirocco and the production version of the CrossBlue concept.

By Dan Mihalascu

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