Mercedes’ S-Class has been a byword for excellence because the first one formally debuted with the W116 chassis method again in 1972. They’ve frequently been the primary automobiles in the marketplace to debut new and thrilling tech like adaptive cruise management (Distronic), seatbelt pre-tensioners and even anti-lock brakes, which debuted in 1978. The 2024 Mercedes-AMG S63 E-Performance doesn’t debut something that groundbreaking, however holy hell, does it ever carry that custom of excellence ahead.
Full Disclosure: Mercedes-AMG needed me to drive the S63 E Performance so badly that they put me up for an evening in a swanky lodge in Santa Monica and teased me with a 300SEL 6.3 that I wasn’t allowed to drive at an ostentatious Malibu mansion. The 6.3 was brown.
The S63 E-Performance is notable for a number of causes. First, it’s essentially the most highly effective manufacturing Mercedes ever, with a whopping 791 hp and 1,055 lb-ft of torque coming from the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine and electrical motor mixed. Next, it weighs as a lot as a Ford F-150 Raptor, at almost 6,000 lbs. It is also the primary plug-in hybrid S-Class, and it’s the primary S-Class to not have a stand-up hood emblem. Big modifications are clearly afoot in Affalterbach.
The S63 E Performance includes a 13.1-kWh direct-cooled battery pack which, aside from consuming up trunk house, allows you to drive the S63 on pure electrical energy for round 20 miles (based mostly on Euro estimates, EPA figures will possible be decrease and are available out in the direction of the top of 2023) and at speeds as much as 87 mph. AMG claims the automobile will hit 60mph in simply 3.3 seconds and rocket as much as an electronically restricted high velocity of 155 mph.
The S63 will get a ton of different AMG-specific tweaks as nicely, like a two-speed rear axle that helps to maximise each acceleration and high velocity, an AMG-tuned air suspension and drive modes and a bunch of AMG-specific styling tweaks like the large Panamericana grille which does an superior job of hiding all of the ADAS sensors packed into the entrance of the automobile. The nine-speed MCT transmission can also be tuned by AMG and customarily works nicely.
Here’s the factor, although. All that efficiency is admittedly fairly pointless. Don’t get me improper, launching a automobile that massive and heavy is fairly intense, however all that weight makes these enormous energy and torque figures really feel “normal S63 fast” at the price of further complexity. I like that there’s all the time energy out there for a fast overtake, however the thrilling a part of this automobile is its skill to drive on electrical energy alone.
Why is that thrilling? Well, first, EVs rule. Secondly – and that is extra germane to our friends in Europe in the intervening time – numerous cities like London, for instance, are beginning to cost folks with massive indignant combustion engines to return into town middle. Some different cities are banning inside combustion altogether. The S63 E Performance might be a sport changer for the well-heeled businessperson. Over right here, we’ll admire the additional cruising vary that the hybrid system will in all probability give us from the S63’s 20.1-gallon tank, and naturally, some folks will decide it over a non-AMG S-Class only for the badge.
While I’m lukewarm on the facility, I’m fully floored by the chassis. The S63 can do issues {that a} automobile its measurement shouldn’t be capable of. I believed AMG was bananas for sending me out on Malibu’s impossibly tight and slender canyon roads, however this enormous boat of a automobile has an agility that may disgrace some automobiles half its measurement. This is basically all the way down to the AMG-tuned air suspension and four-wheel steering, neither of which is revolutionary by itself, however each are executed flawlessly right here.
I additionally admire how permissive the traction and stability management packages are, even exterior of Sport Plus mode. It lets the automobile transfer round – even breaking rear traction – however intervenes easily and shortly to maintain issues from getting out of hand. I think that the S63 E Performance can be a blast round a racetrack, regardless of that undoubtedly not being its meant use case.
Apart from the zany powertrain, the remainder of the automobile is basically simply an S-Class, which implies it’s completely spectacular. Everything appears and feels costly. The seats are extremely adjustable and cozy, they usually characteristic the power to show heating and cooling on concurrently, which is dumb, however I like it. The inside is well-isolated from the street, and whereas AMG makes an attempt to pipe in some sound, it doesn’t sound good and even remotely just like the V8 that lives below the hood. There’s a bizarre, raspy five-cylinder word to it in Sport Plus, and never in a cool method, although this may increasingly get adjusted because the automobile will get nearer to happening sale.
Also, being an S-Class, the S63 is packed to the gunwales with security tech. This factor has all the things you’d count on on a contemporary six-figure automobile, and all of it works nicely. This contains adaptive cruise management, driver consideration monitoring, energetic lane hold help, energetic lane centering, evasive steering help, brake intervention, blind spot help and the record goes on. When you shell out for an S-Class, you count on the perfect, and also you gained’t be let down right here.
Interior downsides are minor and few in quantity however embrace Mercedes’ weird-ass-gonna-make-me-barf 3-D impact on the gauges and heads-up show, however that is simple to show off. Also, the hybrid pack eats into trunk house (10.8 cubic ft vs 18 cubic ft), so whereas not precisely sports-car-small, the S63 PHEV’s boot isn’t what you’d name cavernous.
Mercedes is enjoying it somewhat near the chest by saying that the S63 E-Performance will hit the market across the finish of the 12 months. We’d guess that may find yourself being December. Mercedes is even cagier about pricing for its newest technological terror. A standard S63 sans hybrid will run you round $153,000 earlier than you get to including choices. We’d be shocked if this new one doesn’t run nearer to the $170,000 mark, given the marketed efficiency and the added price to fabricate it.
So, with all that in thoughts, what’s my takeaway?
The S63 E-Performance isn’t actually improved by the added energy and tech, at the least not in ways in which the US market will admire. Sure, it’s fast as hell for one thing that weighs as a lot as a fishing trawler, and regardless of the handful of minor pre-production hiccups I skilled throughout my restricted time with the automobile, when it’s prepared for showtime it can have been ruthlessly engineered to be nearly as good as it may be, as is Mercedes’ customized, notably with the S-Class. The factor is, the hybrid system looks like an answer to an issue that solely exists due to rules and model picture, not a treatment to one thing that the S-Class was missing beforehand.
I completely beloved the 2024 S63 E Performance, however for my cash, I’d purchase an S580e and pocket the distinction. If badge, aggressive styling or bench racing bragging rights matter to you, then you definitely’ll love the S63, and there’s nothing improper with that.
Source: jalopnik.com