Mercedes-AMG is poised to begin advanced development of its first bespoke electric sports car, which will arrive in 2025 with innovative, UK-developed drivetrain technology that is likely to make it the firm’s most powerful road car yet.
Serving as an electric alternative to the snarling, V8- engined GT 63 4-Door Coupé, AMG’s first bespoke electric car will be tasked with taking on highly acclaimed and big-selling EV sports saloons such as the Porsche Taycan, Audi E-tron GT and Lucid Air.
AMG has already turned its hand to the Mercedes EQE and EQS duo to create warmed-up, 53-badged sports saloons with huge power outputs, but this new model will be designed from the ground up as a performance car.
As such, it is expected to place as much emphasis on dynamic performance and engagement as it does straight-line speed.
It will be the first car to use a bespoke performance-oriented EV architecture known as AMG.EA. This is understood to have been designed and engineered with an eye on facilitating the low-slung, sleek silhouettes that currently define AMG’s combustion sports cars.
Central to establishing this platform as a dedicated sports car architecture will be the deployment of highly advanced electric motor technology from British firm Yasa, acquired by Mercedes in 2021.
The Oxfordshire outfit’s disc-shaped axial-flux units, to be built at scale by Mercedes in Berlin, Germany, tout much higher power- and torque-density figures than conventional, sausage-shaped radial-flux motors.
As a result, they can weigh less, take up much less space and operate more efficiently. AMG has yet to give any indication of the precise implications of this technology for its upcoming production cars, but Yasa boss Tim Woolmer confirmed to Autocar that a motor bound for one of the German firm’s production cars weighs just 24kg yet produces 590lb ft of torque and 480bhp of power in its own right.
If used in tandem as part of a twin-motor system, it seems likely that the axial devices will result in a dramatic power boost over even the 751bhp AMG EQS 53 4Matic, potentially edging towards the 1000bhp and 1000lb ft marks.
For reference, AMG competitors BMW M and Audi have access to EV platforms capable of handling upwards of 1300bhp for their own next generation of sports EVs but they have yet to give specific details of their own direct rivals to AMG’s new super-saloon: the next-generation M3 and the RS6 E-tron.
Notably, a recent concept from Mercedes – the retro, wedge-shaped One-Eleven – houses both of its electric motors on the rear axle, suggesting four-wheel drive is not a given for AMG’s next-generation sports cars.