Perhaps more so than any other premium performance division, it is AMG who will find the downsizing push most difficult. Because while BMW and Audi have hero cars with four-, five- or six-cylinders - and the heritage that comes with them - AMG has famously made its name in V8s. And it's impossible to replicate a V8 with any other configuration.
So AMG isn't going to abandon the V8 just yet; instead there will be an electrification of the trademark Affalterbach layout, beginning with the AMG GT 4-door you see here. Rumoured to be called the 'GT73e' - resurrecting the nameplate seen on the mad V12 AMGs of the late 1990s - the car will rival similar luxury four-doors like the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid.
Given that the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 used throughout the AMG range is already capable of 640hp without any hybrid assistance, we can expect a suitably silly power output from the electrified version. This might be an AMG for the 2020s, but it's still AMG. Former CEO Tobias Moers suggested anything up to 600kW was possible from a hybrid V8 when discussing this car's arrival (or 815hp). Given a GT four-door already feels like its rotating the earth the other way with 175hp less than that, goodness knows what the hybrid would be capable of.
The car seen here is pretty clearly still the AMG we're familiar with; in fact the only change that can be seen here is around the rear bumper, which is perhaps being redesigned for the hybrid model. Even by the standards of spy shots, there really isn't a lot to go off here - to all intents and purposes it's another AMG GT 63 S four-door. However, given that it's prowling around AMG's test centre at the Nurburgring, there's clearly more thorough testing going on than what a new bumper might look like. Don't be surprised to see a few photos from the track of the AMG in the next few days, and perhaps some video as well. It seems very unlikely that Porsche's saloon lap record there is going to stay unchallenged for long...
Image credit | S.Baldauf/S.B.Medien
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