Because everyone loved the four-cylinder plug-in hybrid C63 so much, Mercedes is dropping it from its most hardcore AMG models.
The automotive world has been seesawing over the past few years with automakers charging full-speed toward electric vehicles, then dialing back those ambitions as the market clearly demands performance cars retain their larger, more powerful V8 and V12 engines. Mercedes-AMG is one of the latest to land in that camp, as it confirms a new V8 is in the works for its most hardcore models moving forward — with a possible rollout later this year or, perhaps more definitively, in 2026.
Last week, the automaker swore it would keep its bigger engines in production for awhile yet. In the eight-cylinder’s case, future AMG models with this updated powertrains will see tweaks to meet more stringent Euro 7 emissions standards. It’s billing the new powerplant as a “next-generation, high-tech electrified V8”, as a clear about-face from a couple years ago, when it swore its complicated four-cylinder plug-in hybrid setup was the solution to meeting tomorrow’s performance demands.
Clearly not, as folks far and wide lambasted Mercedes-AMG’s decision to effectively halve the size of its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 under the hood of models like the C63 SE Performance.
While those same enthusiasts will undoubtedly celebrate the V8’s return to the C63 lineup that will potentially come in 2026, there are still quite a few things we don’t know about it yet. This new engine will supposedly get a flat-plane crank design, as opposed to the cross-plane crank it has now (with the exception of the AMG GT Black Series), so that will change up the deep, rumbling sound of the current AMG cars. The automaker is reportedly thinking about that, and plans to pipe in fake engine sounds through the speakers to offset that difference. If that’s true, all I can really say to that is, “ugh”, but at least a V8’s a V8, right?
The other major element we don’t know is how “electrified” this new V8 will be. This new mill will most likely pack more grunt on its own than the four-pot M139 (though that is an insanely power-dense engine in its own right), so Mercedes may back off such heavy hybridization. For the sake of winning back customers, it probably will lean toward a purer V8 experience, but we’ll have to wait and see to know for sure.
