AMG brought a thinly covered near-production prototype of the C63 earlier this year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and now it's about to unveil the sports saloon. There's little we don't know about the BMW M3 rival, although we are curious to find out how those interesting technical specifications will translate into real-world performance. Unlike its rear-wheel-drive predecessor, the next generation will be sold exclusively with 4Matic.
Addressing the elephant in the room, the V8 is officially a thing of the past. The peeps from Affalterbach have reiterated on numerous occasions the new C63 will adopt the 2.0-litre M139 from the "45" models but with more power and mounted longitudinally. A rear-mounted electric motor will draw its necessary juice from a 6.1-kWh battery, and yes, the car will be a plug-in hybrid.
2023 Mercedes-AMG C63 at Goodwood FoS 2022
Halving the number of cylinders will upset purists no doubt, but with a combined 670 bhp on tap, the flagship C-Class should be properly quick. Here's hoping the reveal will also include the C63 Estate as well, a hot estate that will do battle with a new contender – the M3 Touring. As a side note, new M cars due from 2023 will be plug-in hybrids as well. However, the Bavarians have no intentions of downsizing their combustion engines, promising to stick to the inline-six and V8 until at least 2030.
The AMG C63 should offer a purely electric range given its PHEV setup but given how small the battery is going to be, the combustion engine will kick in sooner rather than later. Weight is a concern considering that even though the four-pot engine is much lighter than the old V8, all the hybrid-related bits will certainly add fat and we won’t be too surprised if it'll end up considerably heavier than its predecessor.
The world premiere is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 21. AMG won't launch another C63 Coupe and Cabriolet because the two-door C-Class and E-Class models will merge to become the CLE.
Source: Mercedes-AMG