Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance car division has joined the exclusive ranks of high-end hypercar manufacturers with the unveiling of a spectacular new 992bhp-plus coupé known under the working title Project One.
Opinion: the Mercedes-AMG Project One was worth the wait
The car was launched at a Mercedes event the night before the Frankfurt motor show, where it was driven onto stage by three-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton. Speaking about the electrified car at the event, Mercedes chairman Dieter Zetsche said: "This vehicle will make all the performance cars at Mercedes and AMG look small. In 40 years I have never witnessed as much hype at Mercedes as there was with this car. After we showed the silhouette at Paris we had calls the next day to buy them.
The new coupé features an electrically powered front axle that provides it with four-wheel drive in its more performance- oriented driving modes.
A sizeable lithium ion battery mounted low within its carbonfibre body structure is intended to provide the sleek two-seater with a claimed electric range of up to 16 miles in front-wheel-drive E-mode. This will allow the hypercar to perform short journeys at a limited speed with zero emissions by negating the need to engage the petrol engine.
Recharging the battery is performed both on the run using kinetic energy created under braking and coasting and by plug-in means via an 800V electric architecture.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Mercedes-AMG Project One
Terrible, derivative styling. A mess, adds nothing to anything. Corporate mind-think trying to leverage off the F1 team. No purity, no heritage, no vision.
I utterly hate this car.
Mainly because they have copied the most loathed engine format F1 has suffered for at least 50 years.
I have a CLS 63 AMG which I love, but would run a mile if such a format came near my list of potential replacements.
Negativity
There's a lot of negativity here, form follows function here and I think it looks very swoopy and aerodynamic, it also got the reaction from my teenage son that you would expect when seeing a super/hypercar, as for the engine, I am sure it would have been easy to build a car using the same engine supplied to pagani but this is Mercedes cashing in on their F1 success and wanting to effectively build an F1 car for the road, and with their success why shouldn't they? Personally I think all the hypercars look too fussy with all the vents and aerodynamic aids etc, I prefer more simple elegant coupes, but they are what they are.