Mercedez Benz News AMG: Yes To Hybrids, No To Diesel

[William Maley]

By William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

April 12, 2013

Mercedes-Benz's performance arm, AMG says they see hybrid powertrains playing a role in future models.

"Hybrid is going to be in the future of even sports cars. When will there be a pure-performance, high-tech AMG hybrid? We still have a lot of areas of improvement in the (conventional) AMG engines we have. We have promised another 20 percent reduction (in fuel consumption) by our 50th birthday (in 2017)," said AMG Chairman Ola Källenius to Edmunds.

Källenius goes onto say that the big issue with a hybrid setup is the added weight of a battery pack, which would take away from handling and braking. He does say that some of the development for F1 and production sports car technologies are merging.

One powertrain you will not see AMG embracing is diesel.

"We should never say never to a diesel or anything else, but I cannot see a circumstance that would change that possibility for us — what the diesel cannot do compared to a direct-injection gasoline engine is the aggressiveness and pure delivery and sound. And the advantage a diesel has in economy is growing smaller all the time. We are not changing the AMG brand to accommodate diesels," Källenius said.

Source: Edmunds

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[David]

Was it not Audi who showed that Diesels could perform and have an awesome engine tone at the 24hrs Lay Mans race?

I think they are missing one thing better, they should take advantage of the 130 octane CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and build a car. Way cleaner than petrol and Diesel and less green house gas than what is produced for a battery pack on a hybrid. Liter also.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm sure they sell all 5 hybrid AMGs they'll build.

[smk4565]

Doesn't make any sense for hybrid or diesel AMG cars. Diesels and hybrids make sense for the mainstream vehicles. I've never been a fan of this "performance hybrid" movement that other cars have tried to do, they aren't all that fuel efficient and they just add loads of weight and don't give great performance.