It was on September 11, 2017 when Mercedes-AMG took the Frankfurt Motor Show by storm with the unveiling of its conceptual Project One hypercar. Fast forward four years later, the production version of the F1-engined electrified machine is still not here yet, and we're now hearing it will take a while until the first cars will be delivered to owners.
A new report from Mercedes-Fans.de claims AMG won't start shipping cars until the first quarter of 2022, likely because there are still some hardware issues that have to be resolved. As you will recall, the development phase hasn't exactly been smooth sailing, with the switch to the stricter emissions regulations of the WLTP cycle giving the engineers a lot of headaches to make the 1.6-litre V6 compliant.
The top-dog AMG also had some cold start issues at one point during development, and some of you will recall there were also problems with getting the 5,000-rpm idle of an F1 engine down to a stable 1,200 rpm. Some design changes are also on the menu for the production version compared to the 2017 concept, along with a name change by dropping the word "Project" while gaining "E Performance" that will be used going forward for performance hybrids.
As a refresher, only 275 units of the £2-million hybridised beast will ever be made and all of them have long been pre-sold, with buyers signing on the dotted line and agreeing not to flip their cars. For that pretty sum, customers will be getting a hypercar with a combustion engine of Formula 1 origins working with four electric motors to develop a total output expected to surpass 1,000 bhp, maybe even hit the 1,200-bhp mark if the rumour mill is accurate.
The AMG hypercar is coming... eventually
Meanwhile, a prototype was caught testing in traffic near the Nürburgring on a wet day. The AMG One looks just as special as it did four years and we're still anxious to see the final product. Speaking of the Nordschleife, AMG has strongly suggested the production version could set the outright lap record at the Green Hell, beating even the track-only Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo (5:19.55).
Sources: Mercedes-Fans, Automotive Mike / YouTube