Mercedes- AMG confirms huge power for incoming C 63

Thursday, 1 April 2021

There's a new face for the C-Class but a lot more has been changed beneath the skin.

Mercedes-AMG has detailed the forthcoming C 63’s powertrain, which is set to halve the cylinders and add electrification for a gargantuan amount of power.

The performance arm of Mercedes-Benz confirmed the sharpest C-Class will indeed use a turbocharged inline-four along with a plug-in hybrid electrical system, as has long been rumoured.

It will be the first plug-in from AMG and gain an extra ‘e’ at the end of the badge to show it, standing for ‘e-performance’, according to engineers speaking to carsales.com.au.

Like the cooking C-Class, the high-performance AMG variants will use turbocharged four-cylinder engines. But fear not, because they will make ungodly amounts of power.

The combustion part of the equation will be handled by the M139 engine previously seen in the brutally fast A 45 S hatchback, although this time around it will be longitudinally installed and receive an electric ‘turbocharger’ from the AMG One hypercar. Power thus increases to 330kW, up from the 310kW offered in the A 45 S.

**READ MORE:

The old 4.0-litre biturbo V8 was great, but it’s no match for the new plug-in hybrid powertrain.

* Next Mercedes-AMG C 63 could ditch the V8 for a hybrid four-cylinder

* Next Mercedes-AMG S 63 to be a 600kW PHEV?

At least 480kW from the new powertrain is guaranteed, with as much as 520kW possible.

* Mercedes-AMG C-Class to get engine overhaul

* AMG charges up the inline six

Factor in the additional electric motor mounted on the rear axle (which gets its own two-speed transmission) and an F1-derived 6.1kWh battery pack, and you’re looking at outputs reaching as high as 520kW in the C 63e S version. Non-S C 63e models will be offering “at least 480kW”.

For comparison, that’s more than 100kW more than the V8-powered C 63 S in the base C 63e, while the most potent C-Class will offer a full 145kW more.

There’s no mention on range but we’d wager on the battery being designed more towards adding performance than reducing emissions. That said, it should still be able to drive small distances on electric power only.

More on the battery – its Formula 1-rooted design means it has a power density of 1.7kW/kg, twice that of most other lithium-ion batteries. That also means it’s comparatively light, weighing in at 89kg.

It can provide the electrical system with 70kW of continuous power and as much as 150kW for ten seconds. An advanced cooling system keeps the battery cells at an optimum temperature of 45 degrees and its engineers say the system can never be completely depleted, and that it can deploy and recharge faster than other hybrids.

It looks like all C 63 variants will have 4Matic all-wheel drive that can be configured to work exclusively in rear-drive mode but that’s yet to be officially confirmed.

If that’s all a bit much for you, AMG is almost certainly working on another C 43 that will also use the reworked turbo four, although it will go without the trick plug-in system. Instead it will use a new 48-volt mild hybrid set-up that adds a belt-drive starter-alternator to add up to 10kW for a rumoured grand total of 350kW.

However, if that’s not enough for you, consider this – that plug-in system isn’t only going to be used on the C 63. AMG is pairing it with the 4.0-litre V8 found in the AMG GT 4-Door to make a combined 600kW and 1000Nm of torque. It will appear on a ‘73’-badged GT and could also power the next AMG S 63.