Upcoming BMW Diesel Engine Will Have 4 Turbos!

Turbos are hot right now. Seemingly every segment of the car industry has at least one turbo engine on offer; twin turbos, once the realm of exotic supercars, are now available on pickup trucks and family haulers. In 2012, BMW upped the ante with a triple-turbo inline 6 cylinder diesel engine for the European market. But too much is never enough, apparently. Rumor has it, BMW’s readying a new diesel inline 6 with four turbochargers.

This bit of unverified speculation comes to us from Autocar, and we’re taking it with a grain of turbo-salt, but this is the kind of rumor we can’t help but love. The British car magazine quotes “sources close to the German carmaker” saying that the alleged quadruple-boosted oil burner will be a 3.0 L inline 6 packing “well over 400 HP and 800 NM (590 lb-ft).

As for those turbos themselves, theories vary. Autocar speculates that the new engine could be an evolution of the current tri-turbo 3.0 L diesel, with “a small electrically driven turbocharger to increase low-end boost pressure and provide added punch.” Or, it could just be four conventional exhaust driven turbos.

If this four-times-blown diesel engine does become a reality, rumor has it it’ll be destined for a new 7-series variant, the M750d, as well as all wheel drive M Performance diesel versions of the X5, X6, and X7. If the current triple-turbo diesel powered M550d and X5 xDrive50d are any indication, this four turbo mill probably isn’t destined for U.S. shores.