AMG is actively pursing a lower emissions policy for its future cars, the company has confirmed.
“The horsepower war is over,” said AMG boss Volker Mornhinweg.
“We are going to use other ways to extract better performance, including weight saving, engine optimisation and alternative technologies,” the head of Merc's performance division told Autocar.Mornhinweg said that the new Mercedes E63 AMG, due to be seen later this year, would be the first beneficiary of weight-saving technologies.
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The new Mercedes E63 AMG will be lighter than the outgoing model and have the option of the manual wet-clutch gearbox first seen on the SL63, in order to provide more grunt with better economy.
Mornhinweg confirmed that the company was looking at producing a smaller AMG model.
“Mercedes is developing a new platform below the C-class which has possibilities,” he said. This raises speculation that AMG is plotting a hot version of the next Mercedes A-class, which will be available as a coupe.
The AMG boss also hinted that diesel, hybrid and four-cylinder petrol models could also be on the cards, but that they would not be off-the-shelf solutions. They would have to be engineered to match the characteristics that customers expect from AMG.
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