Mercedes-Benz has several electric luxury vehicles in the market; now, AMG is ready to get in on the action with a new all-electric Mercedes-AMG supercar.
Leave it to Mercedes-Benz to find ways to build electric motors in a way that changes the game. A new electric supercar, inspired by the Vision One-Eleven concept will honor the C111 technology that came out in the late 1960s, but that’s not the most interesting part. This new supercar should have electric motors built completely different from how they are currently made.
Axial-Flux Motors; whatever that means
YASA is an expert company in high-performance electric motors. Mercedes acquired YASA in 2021, and the acquisition is about to pay off. A new Axial-flux motor is being developed for the new supercar, which will give it motors that are lighter and smaller than the conventional radial-flux motors that offer similar output.
Currently, the only drawback to these new motors are manufacturing costs and processes. Building axial-flux motors is more difficult than building radial-flux motors, which makes them less cost-effective to build on a large scale, but they could be ideal for a supercar that’s only built in small numbers.
Testing the motors before the supercar
Although these new motors should be part of the anticipated Mercedes-AMG supercar, they will likely be tested in a sleek four-door liftback before going into the supercar. This new liftback car is based on AMG’s new AMG.EA EV platform and should be launched sometime in the next 12 months.
Recently, prototypes of this new liftback were spotted testing on tracks, which puts the excitement into the mix for what’s to come.
Power, power, and more power
These new YASA axial-flux motors are incredibly powerful and light. Just one of these motors generates 489 horsepower and weighs in at less than 53 pounds. That means the new Mercedes-AMG supercar could have a motor setup that weighs less than 212 pounds if they use a quad motor setup. The automaker is looking at multiple configurations, including tri and quad-motor setups for this new car.
The new supercar should use the same AMG.EA platform currently being used for the liftback sedan. The supercar is reportedly expected to outmatch the liftback in performance and be more powerful than the AMG One hypercar that currently holds the production car lap record at Nürburgring. This record is a time of 6:35.183 which was set in 2022. Its time a new record is set and what better than another car from Mercedes-AMG.
What batteries will be used?
With new motors, you might think this new AMG car would utilize a set of energy-dense solid-state batteries, but that’s not the case. This new supercar will stick with lithium-ion batteries, but those batteries could have a new cylindrical-cell design with silicon anodes. This leaves room for a future version of this new supercar to add solid-state batteries to the mix at a later date.
Nothing new for AMG
This new Mercedes-AMG supercar sounds like they are dipping their proverbial toes into uncharted waters, but that’s not the case. AMG has a decade of experience with electric power when it developed the SLS AMG Electric Drive in 2014, which produced 740 horsepower from a set of electric motors.
After that car, AMG has been a strong participant in the electric F1 program, studying energy discharge and recovery to improve and develop incredible new technology that leads to the new supercar.
It’s the next logical step
Mercedes-Benz has been a leader in the electric luxury vehicle world. The brand took its flagship sedan, the S-Class, and created one of the most luxurious and opulent electric sedans in the market. The Mercedes-Benz EQS is an incredible car with a plush cabin, impressively long driving range, and tons of high-end tech features that make it exciting.
The EQS450 4Matic makes 335 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque, while the EQS580 4Matic delivers 516 horsepower and 611 lb-t of torque. Every EQS rides on an adaptive air suspension that does the job of making this incredible electric sedan more comfortable when commuting and more exciting and planted when it’s time to push it hard.
The EQS450 can reach 60 mph in 5.4 seconds, while the EQS580 reaches the same mark in only 3.7 seconds.
Adding a high-performance liftback and supercar to the mix is the next logical step. Mercedes-Benz has many impressive electric vehicles to choose from, making a Mercedes-AMG supercar the next item on the list. This new supercar doesn’t have a release date yet, but the liftback will certainly wet our collective whistles with anticipation and desire for a hot new Merc to tear up the track.