The Death Of AMG As We Know It Has Been Confirmed And It's Coming To Take Our V8s

We know we've got to accept some losses in the fight to reduce carbon emissions, but we'd held some small hope that AMG might persist with V8s until the bitter end. That hope is now all but gone

Matt Kimberley

11 Aug 2017

The Death Of AMG As We Know It Has Been Confirmed And It's Coming To Take Our V8s

If you’re looking for a profitable new startup idea, make it AMG-branded black armbands: the company has admitted that it will have to ‘reinvent’ itself when it comes to developing faster, more aggressive versions of future Mercedes-Benz electric cars.

It’s confirmation that the wonderful AMG as we know it is in its twilight years. It can see its own end just as it can see the new beginning that will come afterwards, but it can’t successfully market itself as both a purveyor of thunderous V8s and a peddler of near-silent high-power electric motors. The two don’t mesh when they’re not under the same body. The part of AMG that can do things with a V8 that no one else can will have to die in order to give birth to its new and very different electric-era persona.

AMG’s total integration into the Mercedes design process means they can ensure from day one that each new model has what it takes to then be developed into an AMG variant if needed. And that, said Drummond Jacoy, Mercedes-AMG’s Director of Vehicle Development, in an interview with Autocar, is going on right now.

“As soon as Mercedes starts a car, we’ll look at what we can do. We’ll have to reinvent ourselves there (with electric cars), obviously, because the sound of a V8 is not going to be there if it’s a pure-electric vehicle. It’s not starting from scratch, but we’re going to have to look at what the AMG story is with an electric vehicle. But we’re working on that.”

AMG is still developing incredible hybrids like the Project One hypercar, but using the 2013 Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive as an example, Jacoy points to a future that’s more 12v than V12.

“It’s obvious we’re not going to make the world happy with V8s for the next 200 years, and AMG has shown in the past, with the electric SLS years ago, that it has capabilities in all-electric drive. That was a very impressive vehicle for its time and we’ve nurtured that technology and the learning we have from hybrid vehicles.”

We’d beg to differ on the V8s front, Mr Jacoy, and if you can just keep making at least one AMG version, we’ll forgive you the rest…
Via: Autocar

Comments

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In actual fact this isn’t such a bad thing. We all know how electric cars have instant torque from when you press the accelerator. So why not have future electric AMG models produce way too much power than necessary from their electric motors and have artificially produced v8 noisey goodness to come through the speakers in the car for when you put your foot down? if anything, the AMG magic we all loved to see on Top Gear will still be there. Only without the engine. But with the power and the sound track?