How AMG’s Hybrid-friendly Approach is Paying Off
The word “hybrid” is more synonymous with performance than eco friendliness these days.
Just a few short years ago, owning a hybrid meant you’d caved in to pressure from your wallet, and bought something to make your commute more economical. Early hybrids were incredibly good at economy, but as a trade-off, were laughably slow, and didn’t have much of a “cool” factor.
Car manufacturers soon figured out that hybrid tech could be used to make up for the performance of a gasoline engine in other ways, too. Next thing you know, supercars are deploying hybrid power, and tons of it. The trickle-down of technology from those cars, as shown by Car Magazine, gives us the tech in AMG’s new 53 series cars, beginning with the CLS53.
AMG’s hybrid technology is constructed in such a way that it offers an assist to the internal combustion engine through an Integrated Starter-Generator. That ISG is quite similar to the early Honda Insight hybrids, which were named “Integrated Motor Assist.” However, the AMG unit differed in that it’s a unit which also powers accessories, eliminating the need for a drive belt, and freeing up the 3.0 liter turbo straight-6 engine to make even more power.
The ISG is placed between the engine and transmission, but in addition to that, an electronic compressor can build up boost for the turbos till they spool. This is all serious Formula 1 tech, and makes for an engine which can lean on electricity to make up for the few short-comings of an internal combustion engine.
Not like the 3.0 has too many shortcomings. With a power rating of 429 horsepower and 384 lb-ft of torque, the electric assist adds an additional 22 horsepower and whopping 184 lb-ft of torque on top of it. Power ratings along those lines make it easy to see why it’s an AMG engine through and through.
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