► What’s next for AMG?
► We speak to the boss, Michael Schiebe
► How AMG stays AMG in the EV age
What happens when you think of AMG? For this writer it’s all about wide-bodied saloons, daft spoilers, the legendary Black Series and tyre-shredding – but practical – hooligans like the W204 C63. But at its heart Affalterbach has always been about V8-powered passion.
‘Buying an AMG has never been a rational decision. I think we can be straightforward. It’s very emotional,’ Michael Schiebe, CEO of AMG tells us. ‘Our cars and future cars have to deliver on two pillars. Of course, they must be high performance cars… On the other side, they must deliver in terms of emotion.’
It’s somewhat reductive to describe AMG’s technical pedigree as ‘usually shoehorn big engine into a luxurious, fairly capable chassis,’ but ever since the Red Pig, AMG’s MO has been a delicately poised balance of Teutonic refinement and brawny madness.
But ZEV mandates and emission laws mean times are changing. The cars listed above are now dinosaurs and AMG must evolve or die. We’re talking to Schiebe at the 2025 Munich motor show, but the night before, parent company Mercedes reveals an all-new electric version of its perennial favourite; the GLC SUV. It’s easier for Mercedes to pivot to EVs, but how AMG work when electric? That’s been Scheibe’s mission since he took over in 2023.
‘We have a very strong history and heritage with our V8s – you know, one man, one engine, the sound and everything,’ Schiebe continues. ‘This is why at the very beginning of the development of the AMG.EA architecture, we thought immediately we need to have great sound and a combustion-like drive mode.’
Scheibe is talking about the GT XX, a near-production-spec concept that’s acting as a mule for AMG’s future tech. Finished in a hot copper orange – much like the experimental prototypes of Mercedes’ past – it carries AMG.EA, the foundations of Affalterbach’s upcoming electric chapter.
It’s the company’s own electric platform, devised in parallel to anything made by the Mercedes mothership: ‘We said our axial flux motor needs to be the electric V8 of Mercedes-AMG,’ Schiebe adds. ‘This is why we invested so much money, so much resource into it.’ In a world of platform sharing, AMG – led by Schiebe and by extension, Mercedes CTO Markus Schafer – is not up for comprising.
With that in mind, all the bespoke components of the AMG.EA are designed around emotion and performance – values as rooted as the apple tree in AMG’s logo. ‘We will definitely make sure that sound, driving dynamics and also other trigger points in the car will give you feedback that you will have never experienced in another electric car,’ the AMG CEO promises.
The GT XX sharing the Mercedes stand with the GLC will inform a car that’ll sound like a classic Mercedes-AMG, and change gear like one too: ‘We need to have the gear shifting, the sound, the RPM, feeling,’ the AMG boss reveals, ‘so everything transferred into the electric era.’ That’s right, we’re getting artificial sound and Hyundai Ioniq 5 N-style simulated gear changes.
The production version of the GT XX should surface towards the end of 2025 as four-door GT, though CAR understands it’ll look very similar to the concept vehicle breaking records around Nardo. After that a (surprise!) performance SUV will follow, slated sometime in 2027 at the time of writing. Don’t complain – AMG has to shift units, just like every other performance brand.
Some of Schiebe’s enthusiasm must come from the GT XX’s recent record-breaking performance, and most from the fact he gets to drive a mule of AMG’s forthcoming EV at least once a week. But some of that energy come from a desire to rewrite the mistakes of the ill-fated four-cylinder C63. Schiebe and AMG know all too well what can be lost when technology is placed above brand essence.
‘I would say we were a little early with that technology,’ the boss admits of the compact four-cylinder’s sophisticated turbo hybrid system. ‘We could have explained it a little bit better, but I’m not sad about it. Why’s that? Because we learned so much about the technology.’
It turns out the direct-cooled battery technology jointly developed by Mercedes F1’s High Performance Powertrains became a building block for the GT XX’s AMG.EA architecture. Alls well that ends well, or something like that.
Mercedes hybrid know-how could have other benefits too; especially in extending the life of its venerable V8s. ‘We are very successful at the moment with our hybrids,’ Scheibe tells us when asked about extending the life expectancy of the Affalterbach V8. ‘We will definitely have hybrids in the future as well… hybrids will definitely play a role in that game.’
Can AMG’s balance of logic and lunacy really remain intact in the future? Only time will tell, but with two seemingly engaging EVs on the horizon and a cosy retirement plan for its ICE engines, Affalterbach looks to be in solid shape.
Curtis Moldrich is CAR magazine’s Digital Editor and has worked for the brand for the past five years. He’s responsible for online strategy, including CAR’s website, social media channels such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, and helps on wider platform strategy as CAR magazine branches out on to Apple News+ and more.
By Curtis Moldrich
CAR's Digital Editor, F1 and sim-racing enthusiast. Partial to clever tech and sports bikes
