In years past, a V10 engine was reserved for only the wildest cars. Only cars like the Dodge Viper, Lexus LFA, and Lamborghini Gallardo needed the extra oomph of a V10 over something as pedestrian as a V8. Additionally, heavy duty work trucks from brands like Ford occasionally used a V10 over a diesel engine when having enough horsepower for the job was paramount.
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Now, in 2024, Lamborghini is the sole brand offering a V10 engine in any capacity, still using it as the powerplant for the soon-to-be-replaced Huracan. How did the automotive industry go from using V10 engines to melt tires and race tracks, to seemingly ditching the idea entirely? It’s important to note that no automotive CEO or industry mover outright said “we are banning V10 engines from now on,” but there are a few overarching reasons why the engine design has fallen out of favor over time, including increasing electrification in cars.
In the name of efficiency
The first, and likely biggest reason is that the automotive industry is generally moving away from traditional gas powered engines in favor of electric or otherwise electrified platforms. Just about all of the major performance brands that automotive enthusiasts know and love have already moved towards a hybrid drivetrain for halo cars. The Porsche 918 with its hybrid V8, and the Ferrari LaFerrari with its hybrid V12, practically invented this trend a number of years ago. Lamborghini has hopped onto the trend as well with its Revuelto.
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Automakers have figured out that you can add a lot of power and torque to a car if you add an electric motor to the mix, instead of making the engine bigger. It’s just an overall more efficient way of making a car fast now that hybrid technology has advanced. BMW learned this with its new generation of M5. A V10 in an old M5 is undoubtedly cool, but a hybridized V8 that gives the M5 a 0-60 time of 3.4 seconds is arguably cooler.
All about power
Additionally, automakers have also started to rely more on forced induction to make gobs of power instead of just adding another bank of cylinders. Modern superchargers and turbocharger setups have become significantly more reliable to mass produce in recent years, and have generally been proven to make a lot more horsepower than any naturally-aspirated V10 from the past. The 8.4-liter V10 that powered the last generation of Dodge Vipers is one of the most iconic engines that has ever been made, but it still can’t hold a candle to the supercharged Hellcat HEMI in terms of sheer power and compactness.
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No one is going to argue that V10 engines were bad or didn’t have an almost magical mystique to them. But it’s important to take off the rose tinted glasses every once in a while and look at the facts. V10s really didn’t make all that much power compared to today’s hybrid powertrains and turbocharged/supercharged V8s and V6s. The 4.8-liter V10 in the Lexus LFA “only” made 562 horsepower. The aforementioned Viper V10 topped out at 645 horsepower in the Viper ACR. When you have modern gas powered cars eclipsing 700 horsepower like it’s no big deal, and electric cars routinely achieving over 1,000 horsepower, it’s easy to see why big complicated V10s fell out of favor.
