GM: Don’t Write Off V-8s Just Yet

GM: Don’t Write Off V-8s Just Yet

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT – Yes, in a tactical move that speaks volumes about the current environment in the automotive industry, General Motors recently halted the development program of an all-new, overhead-cam V8 for premium cars.

But the company’s powertrain boss cautions the move doesn’t necessarily write the epitaph for the V8 at GM – or the auto industry at large.

Tom Stephens, GM’s Group vice president, global powertrain and quality, says in an interview with AutoObserver at the recent Detroit auto show that current regulatory and market trends – not to mention customer preferences – are skewing acutely to increased fuel economy and less environmental impact. The impact of the transformation cannot be conscientiously ignored, he says.

Those forces were the primary contributors to GM’s decision to stop development of the so-called UV8 program, the “U” standing for “Ultra.”

Those factors “forced us to re-prioritize,” says Stephens in regard to the UV8 program. He says the nation’s newly adopted energy bill and its mandate of 35-mpg fleet fuel economy by 2020 looms large over the industry. But just as strong are environmental awareness and the specter of $4-per-gallon gasoline and its impact on customer choice.

Stephens says GM already has observed a change in consumers. At the Cadillac division, he says 85 percent of buyers for the SRX crossover and STS luxury sedan are opting for the 3.6-liter DOHC V6 instead of GM’s longstanding Northstar 4.6-liter V8. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner recently said buyers of Chevrolet’s hot new Malibu midsize sedan also are opting more for the car’s base 4-cylinder engine than GM planners anticipated.

In the decision to shelve the UV8, “I think we did the right thing for this moment in time,” Stephens says – while virtually saying in the same breath that while the UV8 may be shelved, it is “wrapped up with a bow,” and the program easily could be revisited in the future, if market conditions warrant.

Stephens also teases by saying the UV8 is “as refined as anything in the history of internal-combustion engines. It was the quietest engine we’ve ever tested.”

He also says that while it has been assumed the long-in-the-tooth Northstar V8 would be discontinued by around 2010-11, “you’ll have to wait and see,” regarding the ultimate fate of the V-8 that has been in production since being introduced in the ’93 Allante roadster.

Not everyone agrees the nation’s – and its politicians’ – jacked-up environmental awareness is warranted, and lament the impact on the industry. Following a story about engine take-rates for the Chevy Malibu and GM’s shutdown of the UV8 development program, one AutoObserver reader comments that American cars without V8s are like “apple pies without the apples.”

Commenting on the same story, another reader says the U.S.’s recently passed energy bill is leading to an era of “fuel-crisis engineering,” and asserts the bill largely was the result of short-term political expediency.

Photo by GM

GM’s Tom Stephens leans on a V8, although ironically, GM now will be relying less on that engine layout.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.