AMG will soon crank the dial on the electric Mercedes EQS, launching a new performance model with up to 560kW.
This is our first look at the new Mercedes-AMG EQS – a high performance version of the brand’s newly minted all-electric luxury limo.It will make its debut later this year, and ahead of reveal AMG engineers have now been spied putting the car through its paces at the Nurburgring in Germany.
The cladding on this Mercedes-AMG EQS mule hides a more aggressive front splitter, deeper side skirts and a reshaped rear bumper. Mercedes should also replicate its AMG-specific Panamerica radiator grille on the front of the EV, with a dedicated nose cone.
Gorden Wagner, Mercedes’s chief designer, gave us a hint towards the car’s styling at the reveal of the regular EQS earlier this month:
“There will be similar differentiation as you know it from other AMG models, which of course have the Panamericana grille with the vertical bars, so it could be likely that we do something similar for an electric car.”
Mercedes will upgrade the EQS’s chassis to handle the extra power of the AMG-tuned EV powertrain. Sports adaptive air suspension will feature and, behind the wheels of this mule, we can spy some larger AMG-branded calipers and cross-drilled brake discs.
The similarities with Mercedes-AMG’s petrol range should continue inside, with the EQS receiving sports seats, a new sports steering wheel and some dedicated AMG displays for its enormous 55.5-inch Hyperscreen MBUX infotainment system.
We’re still yet to receive a detailed breakdown of the AMG EQS range, although Mercedes has confirmed that its future, pure-electric performance models will be powered by a new twin-motor, four-wheel drive powertrain.
Automotive Daily understands that, like Mercedes’s petrol range, there’ll be more than one AMG version of the EQS. Trademark applications would support this: the brand has applied for EQS 63, 55 and 53 badges.
At the top of the line-up, we’re expecting the AMG 63-badged variant to use the 560kW confirmed by Mercedes at the reveal of the regular EQS. The brand also says the system will provide a 0–100kmh time of “well under four seconds” and an electronically limited top speed of 250kmh.
An AMG EQS variant with around 450kW would slot neatly between the 380kW EQS 580 4MATIC and the eventual 560kW AMG 63 variant, potentially as the first pure-electric AMG 53 model.
Mercedes will also address the issue of sound (or lack thereof) on its new AMG EVs, with what it calls the “AMG Sound Experience.” The system sends a synthesised sound through the car’s loudspeakers, and feeds signals to a shaker and a sound generator in to make up for the lack of a combustion engine note.
Luke Wilkinson