More V8 Mercedes-AMGs Coming, V12 Will Survive In Some Markets

It wasn’t all that long ago that Mercedes, like so many other manufacturers, seemed all in on ditching internal combustion engines altogether, including for its Mercedes-AMG performance division. Things change quickly in the car industry, though, and in an otherwise fairly dry press release detailing its plans for the next few years, including a new CLA, Merc has dropped a couple of bits of news that’ll warm the hearts of plenty of enthusiasts.

Firstly, it’s confirmed that a “next-generation, high-tech electrified V8” is in the works for future AMG models. We don’t know much more about it than that at the moment, but we think it’s more likely that the electrified element will be a plug-in hybrid system. Merc’s existing 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 – which we think this engine will be an evolution of – is already integrated into a PHEV drivetrain in cars like the AMG GT 63 S E Performance and the latest S63.

It’s also probably not this new engine that’ll power the upcoming CLE 63 coupe, set to arrive this year and heavily slated to feature a V8. That’s likely to be the engine in its current form, along with some mild hybrid assistance.

These next-gen electrified V8 models will sit alongside a range of upcoming electric AMG models, which will sit on their own bespoke platform, codenamed AMG.EA. We already know they’ll include a low-slung four-door saloon and an SUV, neither of which will be based on existing Mercedes models.

The other interesting tidbit from the release came at the end of a section detailing Merc’s other combustion engine plans, which it says includes a range of four-, six- and eight-cylinders, all compliant with the stringent Euro7 emissions regulations soon set to come into force in Europe. Here, Merc also notes that “in selected markets, 12-cylinder engines will continue to be offered.”

Merc doesn’t detail which markets these are, but we’d bet on one of them being the USA, which already has less tight emissions rules than much of the world. Here in Britain, the V12 Merc is already dead, but some markets can still get the S-Class with the company’s 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12. Regardless, it’s a bit of a change of heart from where Merc was a little over a year ago when it was planning on phasing out combustion engines altogether by 2030.