by Ty Duffy
Toyota has all but eliminated V8 engines from its lineup. Until this decade, V8s were a staple of the body-on-frame truck lineup. But the Toyota Tundra, Toyota Sequoia, and Lexus LX have downsized to V6 power. With Lexus paring down its car lineup, the last V8 vehicle left for 2026 will be the LC500 sports car. But that could be about to change.
Toyota confirmed to Australian media that it's building a new V8 engine to replace the outgoing 5.0-liter V8, and it may not be just for supercars.
Toyota Is Developing A New Hybrid V8
Takashi Uehara, the head of Toyota's powertrain company, provided details to Australian media about a new V8 engine Toyota is developing. We knew Toyota was developing high-performance 2.0-liter inline-four engines. This engine, effectively, combines two of those to create a 4.0-liter V8. It would use twin-turbochargers with an electric motor in a hybrid layout. According to Drive, the combined output could be around 834 horsepower.
The engine is a conventional hybrid rather than a plug-in hybrid, which would be heavier and more complex. The choice of a V8 was more for reliability than nostalgia. Uehara also confirmed there could be "more gentle" or "more muscular, heavy-duty versions" for different vehicles. And he confirmed that using the engine for the J300 Toyota Land Cruiser, which America gets as the Lexus LX, could be a theoretical possibility.
What Cars Could Get The New Hybrid V8 In America
Uehara noted that the engine was bound for a production version of the Lexus Sport concept. Lexus also presented a concept high-riding sedan/crossover that could lead to a production replacement for the departing flagship LS sedan. Another good bet may be Toyota's new standalone Century luxury brand. Century also presented a luxury coupe concept, and notably did not say what type of propulsion it would use. It's hard to see much use for it beyond that.
Toyota Doesn't Need A V8 For Its Truck Lineup
The V8 hybrid engine does not seem like an excellent fit for the current Toyota truck lineup. Toyota tuned the hybrid and non-hybrid versions of its twin-turbo 3.4-liter V6 for performance. The Tundra and Sequoia already offer up 437 horsepower and 583 pound-feet of torque. It goes up to 457 hp in the Lexus LX hybrid.
Would a super-powered V8 hybrid Lexus LX and a beefy new Tundra to rival the Ford F-150 Raptor R and the soon-to-return Ram 1500 TRX be awesome? Absolutely. Would the low production volumes of either vehicle make developing a distinct engine worthwhile (even with a relatively low engineering lift)? Absolutely not. And Toyota is nothing if not rational about allocating production resources.
Read the full article on CarBuzz
This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
