Charlie Magee|Car and Driver
From the March/April 2024 issue of Car and Driver.
Mercedes-AMG’s newest generation of supersedan relies on a hybrid driveline optimized for track performance. It has one electric motor paired with a two-speed transmission that drives the rear differential’s ring gear (there are two other motors in the powertrain: a starter-generator and one on the turbocharger) and a 469-hp 2.0-liter inline-four with a specific output of 235.6 horsepower per liter bolted to a nine-speed automatic (featuring AMG’s multiplate clutch in lieu of a torque converter). Combined output is seriously high: 671 horsepower and 752 pound-feet of torque. (Read our review of the AMG C63 S E Performance.)
The electric motor (above) is coaxial with the left-side half-shaft, and its two-speed transmission feeds torque directly to the rear differential (above right) by way of an intermediate shaft (not shown) that also receives torque from the engine’s driveshaft.
Normally, mixing motors and engines wouldn’t cause our feeble minds too much trouble. But in this case, Mercedes says that the combined torque of the system is greater than the sum of the engine’s peak torque (402 pound-feet) and the motor’s (236 pound-feet). Typically, a hybrid’s combined output (power or torque) is less than the sum of the parts. Engine and motor torque and power curves are shaped quite differently, so the respective peaks usually don’t align when attempting to maximize efficiency while maintaining drivability. Performance-oriented hybrids often sacrifice some efficiency and instead are designed so that their peaks align to maximize acceleration. But 752 pound-feet had us scratching our heads. Shouldn’t it be 638? It’s as if we’re in a class, and the professor asks, “What weighs more, 1000 horsepower or 1000 kilowatts?” And somehow the answer is “Secretariat.”
Diagram by Pete Sucheski|Car and Driver
This illustration shows all the major power and driveline components. White lines are mechanical connections, red are high-voltage electrical connections, and blue is the low-voltage line.
We’re told we need to think of the whole powertrain (driveline plus engine and motor) as one thing. And because the C63 S E Performance has an engine at one end of the driveline and a motor at the other, the motor’s torque must be multiplied and reduced by the two- and nine-speed autos, respectively, to get combined torque at the crank. The key phrase is “at the crank.” When torque is measured at that spot, the motor’s output is influenced by the gearing. So ponder that before you send us a letter saying we can’t add.
Mercedes-AMG
- The rear-mounted 196-pound 4.8-kWh battery covers the electric drive unit and offers 94 horsepower continuously or 201 horses for up to 10 seconds.
- The powertrain’s maximum 752 pound-feet is only available once the nine-speed gearbox is in third gear. The system limits torque to 546 pound-feet in first and 664 in second.
- The motor’s two-speed transmission can shift from first (12.72:1) to second gear (5.30:1) at up to 84 mph.
We don’t know what the 2024 E-Class will look like from the outside. We don’t know what will power it or how it will handle. But we do know you can host Zoom meetings from the driver’s seat (not while you’re driving, thankfully).
Mercedes showed off the 2024 E’s cabin this week, and a list of features that sounds more like a new phone than a new car.
I’ll Drive, You Watch The Movie
The showpiece is an optional dashboard made up almost entirely of screens. It’s not quite the Hyperscreen of the S-Class. That one is a single pane of glass covering virtually the entire dashboard. This one, instead, has a separate 12.3-inch screen in front of the driver, housed in its own bezel. The rest of the dashboard appears to be a single pane of glass. Mercedes calls this version the Superscreen.
It houses several separate screen surfaces – a 14.4-inch central touchscreen that manages climate and entertainment functions, and a separate 12.3-inch entertainment screen for the front passenger. The latter is shielded so the driver can’t see it, allowing passengers to watch movies without distracting the driver.
Hold Meetings In the Car
Continuing the phone theme, there’s a built-in selfie camera. “When the vehicle is stationary, the driver can participate in online video conferences via Webex or Zoom, and take photos and videos,” Mercedes explains. The company plans to add the same function for the front passenger “at a later date.”
Zoom and Webex won’t be the only apps you can download to your pho..er…Mercedes.
“A new App Store has been integrated into the Mercedes me Store, with a gradually expanding portfolio of apps,” the company says. The cars will ship with, among other things, Zoom, the Vivaldi web browser, TikTok, and Angry Birds.
Program In Your Routines, Or Let the Car Learn Them
Perhaps our favorite function, however, is what Mercedes calls “routines.” Owners can program the car to execute functions in patterns. For instance, Mercedes suggests, you could program your E-Class to warm the cabin to a pre-set temperature on days when the outside temperature is under 40 degrees or run a “date night” routine on Friday evenings that plays romantic music via Bluetooth and sets ambient lighting to a rose-colored hue.
Speaking of ambient lighting, owners can set it to respond to music.
In the future, Mercedes says, it plans to use in-car artificial intelligence to learn the driver’s routines and automate them. If you tend to switch the radio to news as soon as you drop the kids off at school, for instance, the car will learn to do it for you.
Talk To Your Car Casually
And, while many of today’s cars accept voice commands, the 2024 E-Class will listen for them without a prompt if you’re alone in the car. Rather than saying “Hey, Mercedes” to wake up the voice command feature, you can simply speak to it. Drivers can even chain commands together – “turn on the seat heaters and call home,” for example.
It’s an extraordinary set of interior technologies but tells us nothing about the driving experience. We expect Mercedes to begin teasing mechanical details soon.
