Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius, a self-described “petrol head” who once ran AMG, says driving an electric AMG with a simulated V8 turned him into “a born-again Christian.”

The comments, made in a new interview, are Mercedes’ clearest pitch yet that enthusiasts, not just early adopters, are supposed to love its next wave of EVs.

Källenius made the remarks to Autocar’s James Attwood during a drive of the new C-Class Electric in Finland. The context was the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45, whose electric powertrain can simulate a V8 engine down to the pops, bangs, and feedback of virtual gearchanges.

“When I first drove the CLA 45 with that system, I was like a born-again Christian,” Källenius said. “It was the best V8 I’d ever driven: it had all the feeling of a V8 but with more power and torque.”

That is a notable endorsement from someone with Källenius’s résumé. Before becoming Mercedes CEO in 2019, he ran the AMG performance division, oversaw the company’s Formula 1 engine operation in Brixworth, and was executive director of operations at McLaren during the SLR McLaren program.

Källenius’s core argument is that the things car enthusiasts obsess over haven’t disappeared with electrification — they’ve just moved.

“For traditional car nuts it feels like you’re learning a new language,” he acknowledged, comparing the shift to arguing about “a 386 or a 486 processor” on a laptop in his university days.

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