- AMG has given us our first taste of the GT 4-Door Coupe’s electric powertrain in action.
- In-car video footage reveals a synthesized V8 soundtrack as it runs through fake gears.
- The new Porsche Taycan rival uses lightweight axial flux motors from Benz-owned Yasa.
Mercedes-AMG has already shown us the inside of the upcoming 4-Door Coupe, but this week, we got a much better idea of what it’ll be like to really get behind the wheel. Why? Because today we heard the EV powertrain do its best V8 impression, fake gears and all.
The reveal takes place inside one of those cheesy promo videos Mercedes trots out every time it’s about ready to debut a new car. CEO Ola Källenius goes for a spin in a camouflaged prototype, and together with a co-host runs through some supposed “challenges” that don’t really prove anything at all.
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But there’s usually something interesting hidden in the fluff, and this GT video is no different. Most importantly, we get to hear the synthesized V8 noises the car makes when Mercedes-AMG F1 development driver Doriane Pin engages Sport+ mode and guns the four-door coupe hard from a dead stop.
Obviously, it’s hard to know from just watching a video how realistic those noises sound when you’re in the car, but they sound pretty good from here. Better than a Dodge Charger Daytona, that’s for sure.
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And because AMG has worked in some fake shift points, we get to hear it barrp, barrp, barrp its way up to a pretend redline as it runs through some imaginary gears, just like a real combustion-powered GT 4 would. Skip to 4:30 on the video to jump straight to the key moment.
You might reasonably argue that if you want an AMG that sounds like a V8 so bad, then you should just get one, but that’s ignoring the fact that there are some massive tax advantages in some countries for going the EV route. And if you have to have an EV, you might as well have one with a sense of fun.
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Besides, this new GT is much smarter than your average EV because it’s fitted with incredibly light axial flux motors from Yasa, the company that supplies electrical tech to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, and which Mercedes bought in 2021.
We don’t yet know exactly what kind of power the GT’s tri-motor setup produces, but the GT XX concept that previewed it made 1,341 hp (1,000 kW / 1,360 PS). Porsche’s top Taycan is already pushing out 1,034 hp (1,048 PS / 770 kW), and Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra generates 1,526 hp (1,548 PS / 1,138 kW), so the AMG is going to need to summon as many horses as it can when it debuts, probably this summer.
The video also shows the GT pulling off some donuts, proving that the first car to use the AMG.EA electric platform can send its power exclusively to the rear tires if the driver wants, much like a V8 GT.
