I emailed Thierry Argaud at SMA in Nov 12 about this. His response was:
Thank you for your interest in the SMA engine.
I share your analysis in term of avgas cost, scarcity and SMA-RV10 compliance.
SMA is not providing kit, even if in the past, to demonstrate our previous engine version, we created a C182 STC & kit.
So, at that time, we focus on the certified market, the OEM designing the installation.
If a company (not SMA) wanted to propose certified Vans, SMA would study the business plan.
So I am back to looking at IO540 variants. I understand Barrett and Areo Sport have stopped making their versions. Are there any other choices?
I'm a little confused by this quote. Do you mean that Barrett is not making their version of the IO-540??? If so where did you hear that??