Mercedes-AMG ‘underestimated’ fan’s love of V8s
Amid its move to reintroduce a wider range of V8s across its lineup, Mercedes-AMG bosses have admitted they got it wrong by downsizing its engines.
It’s been three years since Mercedes-AMG made the bold decision to fit its long-popular C63 super sedan with a four-cylinder engine and plug-in hybrid system, but the brand’s fans aren’t letting it forget its mistake.
AMG’s decision to downsize some of its cars (including the larger E63) from V8 engines to six- or even four-cylinder hybrid systems has been widely criticised, and now the German performance marque is doing what it can to backtrack.
It has already said that there will be a growing number of V8-powered models in the near future, and now Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius has admitted to US publication Road and Track that the brand lost customers in the move from V8s.
“What we perhaps underestimated at the time was the good old V8 crowd is a pretty good crowd,” Källenius said.
Jordan Mulach
“So you did not get the whole tribe with you.”
Earlier this year, reports emerged that the newer four-cylinder hybrid C63 was being dropped entirely, with the next version of the sedan to be a six-cylinder hybrid, but instead badged as the C53.
Though emissions from the four-cylinder were cited at the time, it’s understood a drop in sales coincided with its move from V8 power.
In the latest Road and Track report, AMG CEO Stefan Weckbach added that the brand is responding to its customers’ concerns.
Jordan Mulach
“We learn from the reaction of our customers. So we go back to what our customers love: the V8 AMGs.”
The return of V8s to the wider Mercedes-Benz lineup will happen in stages, with Källenius telling MotorTrend in May that the new ‘M177 Evo’ V8 (fitted with a flat-plane crankshaft) will be the offered in three distinct guises: “the Mercedes-Benz [version], the AMG [version], and the ‘go crazy’ AMG [version].”
We’ve already seen what the Benz version is in the new S-Class, while the first AMG version is under the bonnet of the CLE 646 Spezialanfertigung, revealed last month.
A slightly toned-down V8 is expected to be under the bonnet of the upcoming CLE63, while the ‘go crazy’ version will undoubtedly power the upcoming GT Black Series.
