Ferrari Wants To Keep Its Glorious V12 Without Making It A Hybrid

Ferrari says it will fight to keep its naturally-aspirated V12 in its range and doesn’t want to rely on hybridization to make that happen.

While the Italian brand has built some of the finest V8-powered performance cars the world has ever known, there’s no powertrain that screams “Ferrari” quite like a V12. And they don’t intend on giving up on that.

“If you want to maximize the benefits of an electrified powertrain, you need to do it with downsizing otherwise it doesn’t make sense,” Ferrari technical chief Michael Leiters told Top Gear when quizzed about the brand’s electrification plans.

“A naturally aspirated V12 engine is not a downsized engine, and for me it doesn’t make sense as a hybrid. We will fight for the V12, of course. We will do everything we can to keep it as it is core to our brand. But a real hybridization of the V12? I don’t see it.

“The LaFerrari was hybridization for performance. In the future, we’re being forced to look at emissions and if you want to really utilize the CO2 benefit, you have to downsize.”

While Ferrari will look to keep its V12 for as long as possible, this doesn’t mean that it won’t eventually be electrified in order to live on. Moreover, if the marque can no longer build it to meet regulations, it could go the way of the dinosaur.

The Ferrari road cars to currently use the marque’s V12 engine are the GTC4Lusso and the 812 Superfast. The latter is powered by a 6.5-liter naturally-aspirated powertrain that enables it to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in a brisk 2.9 seconds and max out at 340 km/h (211 mph) – all accompanied by a spine-tingling soundtrack.