Mercedes-AMG, Electrifying The Future Of Driving Dynamics

Mercedes-AMG is electrifying their future with a new drive strategy by combining superior performance and impressive driving dynamics.

The company’s new drive strategy will charge forward by offering their best in producing performance hybrids and battery-electric AMG derivatives.

At the same time, the experience gained from their close relationship with the Formula 1 experts at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team has contributed a lot in the development of their future drive concepts.

Resting on these two main pillars, the new drive strategies will see performance hybrids with a completely independent drive concept under the technology label E PERFORMANCE and battery-electric AMG derivatives built on the new Mercedes Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA).

Mercedes-AMG GmbH’s chairman of the board of management Philipp Schiemer said, "With our new drive strategy, we are transporting our hallmark DNA into an electrified future. Our performance hybrids, developed entirely in Affalterbach, will even surpass the driving dynamics of our current models and thus absolutely do justice to our new technology label E PERFORMANCE. With the all-electric derivatives based on the Mercedes-EQ models, we as Mercedes-AMG are also continuing to take off with the electrification of the portfolio. We are thus opening ourselves up to new target groups who can experience Mercedes-AMG as the Performance Luxury brand of the 21st century".

Aside from reflecting their expertise in the motorsport field, cooperation among these three performance specialists also makes enthralling AMG models possible.

Most recent example would be the Mercedes-AMG One hypercar that converts Formula 1 hybrid technology into road legal vehicles.

Another would be the EQ models, which are based on the company’s existing model classes that were converted and upgraded with a new drive system, the all-electric drivetrain.

Worry not, even with the extensive amendments to the drive, chassis, design, equipment and now with the addition of the new all-electric drive, the brand will still keep its renowned AMG driving experience nonetheless.

"Mercedes-AMG has always stood for top performance and maximum driving dynamics. When developing our new E PERFORMANCE hybrid strategy, it was therefore immediately clear that we would pursue an independent concept for AMG. The layout with the combustion engine at the front and Electric Drive Unit on the rear axle offers many advantages. The resulting optimised weight distribution, the best possible utilisation of torque, and the very immediate power output promise driving dynamics at the highest level. Added to this is the High-Performance Battery we developed, which boasts twice the power density of conventional drive batteries and, like many other components, inspired by technology from Formula 1," commented Mercedes-AMG GmbH’s chief technical officer, Jochen Hermann.

More on the E PERFORMANCE technology, this drive strategy will offer a new all-electrified drivetrain, which enhances the brand's signature driving performance and driving dynamics, while also being highly efficient.

It features an additional electric motor in the drivetrain, which will increase the performance and the efficiency of the vehicle entirely. Achieving lower emissions and lower consumption.

Other than that, its architecture also offers the additional benefits of external charging at a wallbox, public charging station and or household sockets. 

Detailing further, being a performance hybrid, the modular AMG concept combines the AMG 8-cylinder or a 4-cylinder engine with an enduringly eager synchronous electric motor, a high-performance battery and the fully variable AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system.

As for the electric motor, depending on the model series, however, it is positioned on the rear axle and has been paired with an electrically shifted two-speed transmission.

Furthermore, present is the electronically controlled rear axle differential lock that comes in a compact Electric Drive Unit (EDU). Also, in the rear above the rear axle is the lightweight high-performance battery.

To explain further, AMG’s new electric motor acts directly on the rear axle without a diversion via the AMG SPEEDSHIFT MCT-9G transmission and converts its power with full torque directly into propulsion for that extra boost when pulling off, accelerating or overtaking.

In addition, the integrated, electronically controlled rear axle differential lock can optimise the torque and distribute power to each rear wheel depending on the driving situation.

Resulting in an immediate jolt of a noticeable increase in performance because of the hybrid vehicle speeding up even more agilely out of corners.

Coupled with the automated 2-speed transmission on the rear axle that has specially tuned gear ratios, it ensures the spread from high wheel torque for agile pulling off to safe continuous performance at higher speeds.

The positioning on the rear axle also improves the weight along with the axle load distribution in the vehicle, which contributes to the basis of the significant handling.

Apart from that, the AMG concept also offers a top level of efficiency in recuperation, partly due to the system only allowing minimal mechanical and hydraulic losses from the engine and transmission.

This new modular concept can also be adapted across several model series and thus provides the flexibility that will lead the AMG line-up into their electrified future.

Experts refer to this engineering as the P3 hybrid. This design results in numerous advantages, especially for sports cars and performance models.

Now, moving to the cell pack. It was inspired by Formula 1 and the AMG high-performance battery can produce over 600 kW of system power and over 1,000 Nm of system torque.

Additionally, the cell pack comes with a direct cooling function. For high continuous output and double peak output, the high-performance battery is always kept in an optimum temperature window of around 45 degrees, in order to optimize the recuperation process.

Said recuperation process takes action only after the driver takes their foot off the accelerator pedal, for instance, in overrun mode without touching the brake pedal.

Pursuing that, the process does more than just charge the battery, it also creates a strong braking torque where the wheel brakes are spared or depending on the traffic situation, it does not have to be applied at all. 

What’s more, the driver can also select four different levels of recuperation power from the right-hand AMG steering wheel button. This applies in all drive programs, albeit the energy recuperation is designed differently depending on the drive program.

Evidently, with all these newly developed technologies, Mercedes-AMG is charging its future with performance hybrids and battery-electric AMG derivatives, which offers a powertrain that is more agile than a naturally aspirated V8 combustion engine.