Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door EV Brings 1,153 HP and a Fake V8, But Its Design Is Splitting the Internet

Mercedes-AMG has priced its first dedicated electric car, the all-electric GT 4-Door Coupe, starting at €154,700 for the GT 55 and €196,350 for the GT 63 in Germany. Order books opened this week in Europe, and U.S. deliveries are expected to begin late this year. The GT 63 is the most powerful road-going Mercedes-AMG yet.

The figures making the rounds online, a $180,000 GT 55 and a $228,000 GT 63, are not U.S. prices. They are the euro numbers run through a currency converter. Mercedes-AMG has not announced American pricing, and the outgoing V8 GT 63 sells here for $158,350, so the real sticker will almost certainly read lower than those conversions suggest.

We previewed this car last May as the 1,341-hp GT XX concept. The production version trades some of that headline power for a price, a charging claim, and a synthesized V8 soundtrack. It also lands with a redesign that has turned much of the car internet into amateur design critics, most of the heat aimed at the rear.

The GT 63 Makes 1,153 HP From Three Axial Flux Motors

The flagship GT 63 produces 1,153 horsepower and 1,475 lb-ft of torque from three axial flux motors, two at the rear axle and one at the front, while the GT 55 makes 805 horsepower and 1,328 lb-ft from the same layout running at lower output. Mercedes quotes a 0-60 mph time of about 2.0 seconds for the GT 63 in its launch announcement.

This is the first model on the new AMG.EA platform, and the first series-production full-electric car to use axial flux motors. The technology comes from YASA, the British motor specialist Mercedes-Benz bought in 2021. Hybrids such as the Koenigsegg Regera and Ferrari SF90 have used the design before, but never a production EV.

An axial flux motor is shaped like a pancake instead of the soup-can radial motors most EVs use, with disc-shaped rotors sandwiching the stator. InsideEVs reports the result is a drive unit Mercedes says runs 67% lighter and 67% shorter than a conventional setup, spinning past 13,000 rpm at top speed. The front motor can disconnect under light load to cut drag, then reconnect when the driver asks for more.

Both cars run seven drive modes and nine traction levels. Top speed is held to 186 mph with the AMG Performance Package. Cars.com, which saw the car up close, pegs the full drive system at around 309 pounds and notes the GT trails the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT to 60 mph by two-tenths despite the bigger power figure.

Charging Peaks at 600 kW Where the Hardware Exists

Mercedes-AMG quotes a peak DC charging rate of 600 kW for the GT 4-Door, enough to add 244 miles in 10 minutes and to run from 10 to 80 percent in as little as 11 minutes, drawn from a 106 kWh battery on an 800-volt architecture derived from Formula 1 work. That headline number carries a real-world asterisk.

Public chargers that deliver 600 kW barely exist yet. Destination Charged notes the figure depends on hardware only beginning to appear, such as Alpitronic’s newest cabinets, while most fast chargers today top out far lower. The car can step down to 400 volts on legacy stations and supports five regional DC standards, including NACS in the United States.

The battery pack holds 2,660 cylindrical cells in 18 modules, nine to a side, using a nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum chemistry rated at 298 Wh/kg. Mercedes has not published an EPA range. A figure of about 315 miles has circulated, and the car’s own dashboard showed 316 miles in early reveal photos, but treat that as an estimate until the official rating lands.

Mercedes-AMG Built a Synthetic V8 From 1,600 Audio Files

Selecting the AMGFORCE Sport+ drive mode pipes a simulated V8 through the cabin and out of the car, built from more than 1,600 audio files that the system uses to read throttle and speed, complete with simulated gear changes and lifts that pop and burble the way a combustion AMG does on a trailing throttle.

The sound profile is sampled from the old AMG GT R (C190), and the fake shifts come with brief torque interruptions plus a tachometer that sweeps to a 7,000 rpm redline on the cluster. Hyundai already proved the idea can work with the Ioniq 5 N. Whether buyers want a digital impression of the engine AMG just deleted is the open question.

Reactions are mixed. Cars.com, which heard it in person, called it a “lame V8 sound schtick,” while other outlets at the launch came away convinced. This is the part of the car most likely to divide its own target buyer, the AMG faithful who spent years paying for the real thing.

The Redesign Has Split Opinion, Loudest at the Rear

The GT 4-Door’s styling has drawn the sharpest reaction of any part of the launch, and most of the anger points at the rear, where a recessed black panel holds six round taillights, three per side, that more than one writer has compared to upside-down radiation symbols floating in a void.

The front keeps a large faux Panamericana grille with illuminated vertical slats, but the headlights now sit above it, linked by a full-width light bar with star-motif running lights, closer to the latest CLA than the outgoing GT. The proportions are cab-forward, with a shorter hood and a lower body. The side profile is the calmest angle, and to my eye the best.

Autoevolution ran a piece headlined around how much the internet hates the look. The Autopian called it a hideous break from what a Mercedes is supposed to be. The calmer take came from Cars.com, which argued the car reads as androgynous and not far removed from the current Taycan, with styling that feels aligned to Chinese market tastes.

For context, the GT had cover. The Ferrari Luce debuted days earlier to a reaction so brutal it knocked 8.4% off Ferrari’s stock, which pulled some of the design fire off Affalterbach. My own read: the engineering is the headline, the tail is overworked, and Mercedes is again pushing a new design language faster than the audience can digest it.

U.S. Pricing Is Still Unannounced and the Euro Numbers Mislead

Mercedes-AMG has published German and European pricing but not a U.S. figure, which matters because the dollar amounts shared this week are straight euro conversions rather than an American MSRP. German performance cars almost always cost less in the United States than their euro stickers imply, so the viral numbers overstate the likely American sticker.

In Germany the GT 55 opens at €154,700 and the GT 63 at €196,350. ArenaEV reports a loaded GT 63 climbs past €208,000 once buyers add options like the €2,975 SKY CONTROL panoramic roof with its illuminated AMG logos, the €2,380 charging package that unlocks the full 600 kW, and carbon trim. For reference, the outgoing V8 GT 63 lists at $158,350 in the U.S.

The competitive set is thinning at the top. The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT starts at $243,700 here. The Tesla Model S Plaid, long the value benchmark for this kind of speed, is effectively gone now that Tesla built its last Model S and Model X at Fremont and turned the line over to Optimus. AMG is entering a high-end electric field that several rivals are quietly abandoning.

EVXL’s Take

Two design controversies in one week tells you where the luxury EV market is right now. Tuesday I wrote up the Ferrari Luce backlash, where a former CEO wanted the badge stripped off the car. Now AMG ships a polarizing shape of its own. The difference is that AMG backed its risk with genuinely new hardware rather than a famous designer’s name.

I have followed this program since we covered it as the GT XX concept last May, when the pitch was 1,341 hp and a 900 kW charging dream. The production car is more honest. It makes 1,153 hp and charges at 600 kW where you can find the hardware. The fake V8 does the emotional work the real one used to, and that last part is the gamble. The axial flux motors are the actual story, and they are the strongest argument AMG has made for an electric future that still feels like AMG.

Here is the call. When Mercedes-AMG publishes U.S. pricing for the GT 55, it will land under $160,000, well below the $180,000 conversion making the rounds this week, and within a few thousand dollars of the outgoing V8 GT 63. Bet on the euro panic being wrong.

Sources: Mercedes-Benz USA, electrive, InsideEVs, Cars.com, ArenaEV.

EVXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.