But trust AMG to fiddle with it for maximum fun.
The nutters in AMG have had a bit of a think about tightening emissions regulations, and they’ve come up with a cunning plan. While their range does feature a handful of mild-hybrid cars in the form of the E53 and CLS53, MHEV setups just don’t deliver the performance or the emissions-reductions that the company needs to stay on the good side of Brussels.
So, as part of the £9-billion investment plan by Mercedes-Benz proper, AMG will soon offer plug-in hybrid variants of all its cars, with the first of the bunch expected to arrive sometime next year. This was confirmed by emissions boss Frank Overmeyer.
“All the AMG vehicles will be available in the future with plug-in hybrids as an option. Mild-hybrid is not the strategy of AMG, because the emissions savings are too small. [AMG] are the technical icons of our brand. We should also never forget that the new world electric vehicles need to be funded, and it’s being fined by our existing high-profit vehicles.” – Frank Overmeyer, Senior Manager (Passenger Vehicles Emissions & Safety - External Affairs), Daimler AG
The PHEV system that AMG will employ will be the third-generation PHEV setup from Mercedes-Benz, which will utilise a more powerful 90kW/440Nm electric motor (according to Autocar), offering up as much as 50km of all-electric range. Range especially will be improved in future hybrid Mercedes-Benz models, but that’s something that AMG will trade for more potency it seems. And that reworked setup will be badged EQ Power+, just like on its F1 cars.
“The battery itself and the application, including the electric motor, will be the same. And you can have a significant boost in performance that will reduce the range, but improve the experience. Same battery, same drivetrain, but different application. In an SUV it might offer 100km [of electric range]. It might only be 60km or 70km [of electric range] in an AMG.” – Frank Overmeyer, Senior Manager (Passenger Vehicles Emissions & Safety - External Affairs), Daimler AG
So there you have it, then. With potency & environmentalism hand-in-hand, there’s precious little reason not to pay a little extra over a vanilla Mercedes and bring home a plug-in hybrid AMG. We don’t know about you, but we quite fancy the idea of an AMG A45 with 300kW from the engine and 90kW from an electric motor, while still being able to drive to the shop and back without consuming a drop of fuel.
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