Mercedes-AMG to accelerate into an electrifying future

It’s the road that several ICE car brands are looking at as they move forward in their business. Mercedes-AMG, the performance brand of the German luxury carmaker that is the highest-selling luxury marque in the Indian passenger vehicle market is also no exception. The marque has shared a glimpse of what’s coming with its all-new 2023 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance model. This is the car with which the company aims to take the hybridisation route until its portfolio is fully electrified in the not-so-distant future.

The company is betting big on its AMG ‘E Performance’ hybrid powertrains, which deploy F1-inspired P3 layout — with engine mounted at the front axle, an electric motor at the rear, and gearbox sandwiched in the middle — to achieve sharp driving dynamics, which stand true to the AMG moniker.

The GT 63 S E Performance, which delivers a combined power output of 843hp and 1,470Nm of peak torque, is Mercedes-AMG’s first plug-in-hybrid vehicle that integrates a 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 internal-combustion engine with a 204hp electric motor. The 400V EV architecture utilises a 6.1kWh battery pack with 560 cylindrical cells, which are all liquid cooled and maintained at a temperature of 45-degrees Celsius. While the battery pack offers a pure-EV range of up to 12km, the EV drivetrain comes with a two-speed gearbox to offer boost both at low and high revs.

With emission norms getting stringent around the world, and with the end of the road for ICE cars being the writing on the wall with certain markets such as Europe announcing EV-only roadmaps beyond 2035, Mercedes-AMG acknowledges the fact that although the future is electric, is not giving up on combustion engines for its performance-oriented AMG brand.

"Hybridisation is a transition path for our customers towards the future which will be electrified. However, we are not giving up on our combustion engines yet for the performance-oriented AMG brand" — Jochen Hermann, CTO, Mercedes-AMG.

The company says it will continue to leverage the E Performance hybrid technology in its road-legal cars as it readies a range of AMG-specific, fully-electric performance cars based on the exclusive AMG.EA platform. According to Jochen Hermann, CTO, Mercedes-AMG, “Hybridisation is a transition path for our customers towards the future which will be electrified. However, we are not giving up on our combustion engines yet for the performance-oriented AMG brand.”

In a virtual session organised by Mercedes-Benz India on May 11, Hermann mentioned that the company is ensuring that with the hybridisation technology, its ICE powertrains will meet the emissions standards up to Euro 7 norms, which would probably be equivalent to China 7, and will indirectly deem the Mercedes-AMG V8 engines fit to be used in any other market globally. “It is a very good technology that we would want to sell as long as possible, and as long as there is demand for it,” Hermann said.

Mercedes-AMG believes that the hybridisation path offers a middle ground between ICE and EVs, and that the technology helps familiarise people with the fully-electric future. "A hard-core AMG fan might not buy the idea of an electric, but as soon as people have driven, for instance, the GT 63 S E Performance, their perception completely changes," he added. Other than the flagship V8s, Mercedes-AMG has also tried the hybridisation formula in the four-cylinder C63 AMG and believes it is the ultimate way to redeem performance and efficiency.

Giving a glimpse into the future EV technology and the big conundrum of range anxiety, and charging times, Hermann mentioned that with charging speed being a key consideration for an EV, all-electric AMGs in the future could be expected to offer extremely fast charging. “It would be a key requirement for an AMG sports car, and we would love to offer cars which could recharge within a few minutes. We think the car will not be the limit, it would rather be the charging station,” he said.