We hear lots of rumors about new powerplants being developed by major OEMs. However, anyone who knows how it works at large corporations knows that sometimes projects never make it out of the testing phase, oftentimes for no other reason than a beancounter somewhere found it a frivolous expense.

However, Aston Martin recently confirmed details of their latest engine project, code-named TM01 (paying homage to Tadek Marek, a famed Aston engineer from the 1950s and ‘60s). The TM01 engine will be the first powerplant to be designed by Aston Martin, in-house, since 1968.

The engine will be a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6, with an electrified powertrain. With design goals of being both compact enough to fit within the constraints of a rear-midship engine compartment, and lightweight (under a 440-pound target weight), the design team opted for a “Hot-V” setup.

By designing the cylinder heads with the intake ports on the outside of the engine, and moving the exhaust ports inboard, the team is able to nestle the turbochargers in the valley of the engine, which not only reduces the weight of the associated plumbing, but makes for a more compact, thermally efficient design.

While exact specifications haven’t been released, we do know that this engine is equipped with a dry-sump oiling system and is overall being designed to operate in a higher powerband to get the most out of its smaller displacement engine. With the electrification, the turbochargers could be designed for higher-RPM performance, with the electric motor helping the bottom-end performance.

While Aston Martin isn’t releasing all of the nitty-gritty details of the engine, they did reveal that it has already undergone thousands of hours of dyno testing and validation.

“This project has been a great challenge from the start,” says Joerg Ross, Aston Martin’s powertrain chief engineer. “Putting a team together to deliver what is going to be the future power of Aston Martin has been an honor. From the very beginning, we have had the freedom to explore and innovate in a way that we have not been able to do so in a very long time. Most importantly, we wanted to create something that is befitting of the TM01 nameplate and create something that would have impressed our predecessor and pioneering engineer, Tadek Marek”

We’re hoping for a more thorough release of specifications soon, as this is slated to power the 2022 Aston Martin Valhalla. But for now, even though the engine has undergone significant dyno testing and validation, the firm is keeping all of the major engineering details under wraps.

One thing we can deduce from this screen-capture (from the above video) is that it appears the combination won’t use “twin” turbos, but rather “mirrored” turbochargers, with dedicated left and right side counter-rotating units.