You can have your cake and eat it too proves Mercedes with the release of its first performance hybrid — the AMG GT 63 S E Performance.
It’s Mercedes’ most powerful series-production model to date.
At he heart of the four-door coupe is a 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 along with a 150kW electric motor mounted on the rear axle.
The combination delivers 620kW of power and 1400Nm of torque, with a blistering 0-100km/h time of 2.9 seconds and top speed of 316km/h.
You get this and indicative fuel consumption of just 7.7L/100km and 12km of all electric range — enough for a quick trip down the road to Maccas and back?
The integration of a powerful ICE with a permanently excited synchronous electric motor and a lightweight, high-performance battery pack follows the strategy adopted in Formula 1 by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 racing team.
In fact, during internal AMG test drives at the Hockenheimring, AMG test drivers were around two seconds faster per lap in the hybrid compared to the standard AMG GT 63 S 4MATIC+.
Chief Technical Officer Jochen Hermann said the layout, with the combustion engine at the front and electric drive unit on the rear axle, offers numerous advantages.
“The optimised weight distribution, best possible utilisation of torque and the very fast power delivery, promise driving dynamics at the highest level,” he said.
“Added to this is the high-performance battery developed in-house, which has twice the power density of conventional drive batteries and, like many other components, is inspired by technology from Formula 1.”
Development of the lithium-ion battery was inspired by technologies that have already proven themselves under the toughest conditions in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team’s Formula 1 hybrid racing cars.
The battery has a capacity of 6.1kWh, with continuous output of 70kW and peak output of 150kW for 10 seconds.
The battery’s low weight of only 89kg allows for very high power density of 1.7kW/kg, whereas conventional batteries without direct cooling of the cells achieve about half of this figure.
Charging is via the 3.7kW on-board AC charger, at a charging station, wallbox or household socket.
The 150 kW electric motor is positioned at the rear axle, where it is integrated with an electrically shifted two-speed gearbox and the electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential in a compact electric drive unit (EDU).
The location of the lightweight high-performance battery over the rear axle offers numerous advantages:
- Electric motor acts directly on the rear axle and can convert power more directly into propulsion — for that extra boost moving off, accelerating or overtaking.
- Power of the electric motor can be applied at full torque for particularly agile starts.
- Thanks to an integrated, electronically controlled limited-slip rear diff the hybrid accelerates more quickly out of bends.
- As slip at the rear axle increases, drive power of from the electric motor is also transferred to the front wheels as required for better traction, via a propshaft and the drive shafts of the front wheels.
- The positioning on the rear axle improves the weight distribution for better handling.
The new Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance four-door coupe is priced at $399,900.
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