Will Aussies embrace electric Mercedes-AMGs?

Mercedes-Benz performance cars are ditching V8s in the transition to EV, but the jury is still out on market acceptance

By 2030 the Mercedes-Benz vehicle portfolio will be almost all-electric, as part of a $65 billion investment in the German luxury car-maker’s seismic shift towards EV technologies.

The move will have huge implications for many rusted-on Benz buyers by decade’s end, when everything from small cars to large SUVs and even the brand’s popular high-performance AMG vehicles – like the A 45 and C 63 – will be almost exclusively all-electric.

But how Aussie performance car customers in particular respond to this EV shift remains to be seen, given the nation’s love of soul-stirring petrol-powered road warriors.

“We know what sells well in Australia at this stage, but we need to also be dynamic about what happens in the future,” Mercedes-Benz Australia’s head of media relations, Jerry Stamoulis told carsales.

The first-ever all-electric AMG, the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 4MATIC+, was launched to the media in Australia this week. The high-powered EV’s twin electric motors generate up to 560kW and 1020Nm, which is enough gristle to propel the chubby 2.65-tonne battery-powered limousine to 100km/h in just 3.4 seconds.

In this sense it’s every bit an AMG capable of stomach-churning acceleration, but the new-generation of hi-po cars from Mercedes’ performance division are unlikely to deliver the physical and acoustic spectacle of a combustion engine.

High-tech EVs are generating plenty of interest among Aussie buyers at present, but Stamoulis remains non-committal about whether electric power will be viewed as a viable substitute for a growling V8.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

Mercedes-Benz is yet to confirm if or when AMG’s current 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 will be replaced or retired, but AMG CEO Philipp Schiemer has said he thinks the V8 will be around for another decade or so, at least in some form.

However, the new Mercedes-AMG C 43 has already swapped its V6 turbo engine for a mild-hybrid version of AMG’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine and the next Mercedes-AMG C 63 will ditch its trademark V8 from next year.

One of the brand’s most popular V8 models, the new-generation C63 will downsize its powertrain even more dramatically, with a juiced-up version of the same four-cylinder turbo engine augmented by twin electric motors in a plug-in hybrid powertrain.

Set to be revealed later in 2022, AMG engineers have said the new C 63 will generate more than 480kW of power, which is a huge amount of shunt and a big step up from the current model.

It’s unclear whether larger AMG models based on the next-generation E-Class and potentially the GLE SUV will also get the hardcore four-cylinder hybrid powertrain, or whether they’ll follow BMW and go the hybrid V8 route in future.

AMG is developing its own unique EV platform architecture dubbed AMG.EA, which has been showcased via the latest Vision AMG concept car, and it will underpin all future AMG EVs from 2025, in another strong signal that the combustion engine era is almost over for the famous German performance brand.

Stamoulis wouldn’t comment on future AMG products but said the AMG V8 isn’t going anywhere, at least for now.

“It’s still part of our range,” he said.

The question is just how much time AMG’s V8 has left.

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