I read that when Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers heard the next C63 would need to adopt a hybrid four-cylinder engine, so that Mercedes could meet its CO2 emissions targets, he walked out of the meeting. And it wasn’t to go and buy celebratory bunting.
Moers likes multi-cylinder engines – making engines is what AMG started life doing, after all – and thinks V8s, as fitted to the C63 at the moment, are the heart of the company.
But the rules are the rules: big car makers need to find a way for their cars to emit an average of 95g/km of CO2 in 2021, phasing down to 81g/km by 2025 and 59g/km by the end of the next decade. There are minor complications based on weight and how many cars a company makes, but that’s the short of it. And if they don’t comply, they pay the EU money on every car they sell, for every g/km by which, on average, they miss the target.
Which means AMG isn’t the only one with grumpy engine enthusiasts. For companies on the breadline – which is most mainstream manufacturers, whose ambitions are a modest single-percentage-figure profit – finding 95 euros to pay per car, per g/km by which the whole fleet exceeds a target, is unthinkable. Increasing prices so customers pay it is no more palatable, either. And so they’ll meet it. Ask them and they’ll say: it’s not optional.
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bol
Fun vs status
At the moment performance cars are still more about status than fun for a lot of people. Big says success. For a younger generation there is hope that big will say crass and environmentally irresponsible, and more status will be attributed to smaller cars in which more fun can be had responsibly. Roll on the small, affordable electric sports car.
Old But not yet Dead
Dinosaurs are no longer at the top of the food chain
We already have the perfect example of Matts argument for sale in the form of the Alpine, with an even faster one now emerging.
The future could be so much fun when new technology and innovation sees the mega sized Germanic inspired beasts go the way of the dinosaur.
keeforelli
Swift Sport
I have a new Suzuki Swift sport, which weights 950kg, has the eager, torquey 1.4 turbo, and it feels lithe, alert, and due to the power to weight ratio, very fast indeed, yet delivered nearly 50mpg.
The Abarth 595 it replaced weighs 100kg more, so i know look at weight as a key metric in desirability, and I question overweight cars, due to the inherent inefficiency it creates, particularly giant SUVs weighting over 2000 kg...
si73
Re define performance, sports
Same with the swift sport up GTi etc, yet these are the sort of fun cars that are actually useable on the roads.
For me the allure of a V8 in these performance cars is the sound as opposed to the performance and that is where these down sized engines are a let down, if engine designers could create a small capacity economical V8, with enough performance and that great sound track then that would be impressive. Mazda had a 1.8 V6, why not a 2.0 V8? Cost I expect.
bol
Remove size and weight, add power
The MX-5 really can be a performance car. Once you get the other side of 200bhp they feel very lively indeed. There shouldn't be anything preventing manufacturers achieving 200bhp/tonne in a little electric sports car - and the sound of an electric motor at full chat isn't dissimilar from a supercharger.
si73
True you could add
Jeremy
Isn't this why the original
Isn't this why the original Golf GTI and its ilk were so successful? When I see modern Lamborghinis and the like driving around London I just laugh at them.
Paul Dalgarno
Are Vauxhall the most inept marketeers in the world?
All the "British" nonsense, and years of terrible advertising, what are they thinking to make electric cars VXR? I mean just how stupid are they? VXR means a wild, extreme petrol car to me. An electric car from an existing brand should be a new name, it's new, it's moving the game on, etc.
It's quiet unbelievable how inept Vauxhall are. They have a massive image problem, and lord knows it's hard to put a positive slant on the mediocrity they currently make. But wow, you have a chance to rebrand as electric cars and you saddle it with an old name that means something different. Must have been the same team that thought naming the Viva and Adam was a work of genius.
Boris9119
Long Live the Macan!
Porsche may be in an enviable position. They sell way more SUV's than hardcore 911's, the former will all be electric pretty soon (Next Macan rumoured to be electric and hybrid only) leaving room for Andreas and his boys to continue to fettle the 4ltr n/a flat 6cyl!
Technomad
Much as I love the sound and
Much as I love the sound and feel when driving of a well-engineered 6 or 8 cylinder engine (I've had plenty of them), the whole notion of tailpipe emissions is rapidly becoming moot, and any manufacturer still predicating its future on any form of internal combustion is heading rapidly for oblivion. Even in today's world, a C63 gets embarrassed by most Teslas, and wouldn't actually know which way a Model 3 had gone down a twisty road. Time to accept that dinosaur burners are in their final throes, and will soon be the province of low-mileage die-hard enthusiasts - a bit like the steam train.
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