AMG Planning on Going Hybrid by 2020

By Jonathon Klein - August 3, 2015

Current environmental laws are making it harder and harder for manufacturers to bring out sports cars with naturally aspirated engines. Chief among the companies affected is Mercedes and its AMG lineup. Gone are the glorious naturally aspirated 6.2L V8s; in their place are twin-turbocharged units that just don’t have that iconic Mercedes growl.

However, it seems that the current era of turbocharged engines isn’t enough to keep “the man” off Mercedes’ back. Speaking with Autocar, Thomas Weber, Mercedes’ R&D chief, said that hybrid AMGs are being developed and that the first hybrid AMG will most likely see production by 2020.

“Every car line has to reduce fuel consumption, even AMG. No one part of our business can be carried on the back of another. It’s a huge task to reduce AMG fuel consumption but we’ve realized that it’s also a huge opportunity,” Weber stated. He went on to say that the reason we currently don’t have hybrid AMGs is that the in-house tuning company’s current customer base just wouldn’t buy into it, and that the process needs to be proven to make the cars better before they go into production.

While Weber didn’t state if the hybridization of AMG would ditch the turbos in favor of natural aspiration, it’s most likely that there will be some type of hybrid/turbo setup, much like that in the McLaren P1. If that car’s the benchmark, we’re eager to see what AMG comes up with.