CONNECT WITH US
EV & Mobility

EV & Mobility

Mercedes Admits It Underestimated The V8 Crowd, Teases A V12 Surprise

Motor1 logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
Mercedes Admits It Underestimated The V8 Crowd, Teases A V12 Surprise

If you firmly believe there is no replacement for displacement, Mercedes has good news. It’s finally acknowledging what enthusiasts have said for years: You can’t swap out a big engine for a complex hybrid setup and expect everyone to be happy. The company isn’t abandoning electrification, but its latest comments suggest the V8 is getting another chance to shine, and the V12 may have a future beyond its current applications.

Speaking at a media roundtable, CEO Ola Källenius admitted in an interview with Road & Track that the company had underestimated the appeal of traditional eight-cylinder engines. Discussing the four-cylinder plug-in hybrid C63, he said: “What we perhaps underestimated at the time was the good old V8 crowd is a pretty good crowd. So you did not get the whole tribe with you.”

That’s about as close as an automaker gets to admitting it misread the room. The outgoing C63 S E Performance combines a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with an electric motor to deliver a combined 671 horsepower. Impressive numbers haven’t stopped enthusiasts from missing the old V8, however, and Mercedes appears to have taken notice.

Mercedes isn’t giving up on combustion engines just yet. AMG CEO Stefan Weckbach confirmed that the V8-powered CLE63 will arrive next year, adding that the company is returning to what its customers want. “We learn from the reaction of our customers,” Weckbach said. “So we go back to what our customers love: the V8 AMGs.”

Unfortunately, the V8's return to AMG doesn't mean the C63 will get its old-school soundtrack back.


Source link
Related Topics:EV & Mobility

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.