Mercedes-Benz plans four platforms to carry it into an all-electric future. There’s the Modular Mercedes Architecture (MMA) for entry-level vehicles like the production version of the Concept CLA. Then there are the three EA platforms: MB.EA for midsize and large Mercedes passenger vehicles, VAN.EA for the commercial haulers, and AMG.EA for hyper-potent stuff from the Mercedes-AMG division, the first of which is due in 2025. Engineers in Affalterbach showed what an AMG.EA brainchild could look like with the Mercedes Vision Concept from May of last year, a four-door exuding vibes of a beefier Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept while also clearly in the AMG One family. Autocar reports that the performance vision for the first pure-electric EV developed by AMG could bring close to 1,000 horsepower to the table, if not more.
The potential output comes courtesy of axial flux electric motors developed by UK company Yasa, a startup incorporated in 2009 to commercialize innovations made at Oxford University. In its short life, Yasa’s axial motors have appeared in the Jaguar CX-75 Concept, record-breaking electric racers at Pikes Peak, the Konigsegg Regera and the Ferrari SF90 Stradale. Mercedes bought Yasa two years ago, the company tasked with high-energy motors for AMG. Mercedes hasn’t spoken of figures yet, but Yasa founder and CEO Tim Woolmer has said one motor planned for AMG weighs 53 pounds and is capable of a peak 480 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. This is the “exceptionally powerful and advanced” unit Mercedes hinted at when speaking on the sidelines of the One-Eleven Concept debut.
If Woolmer’s figures are representative of the motor going in the electric AMG, that’s a possible 960 hp and 1,180 lb-ft. assuming AMG restrains itself to just two motors, one on each axle. These aren’t heady numbers for luxury electric cars — the hybrid AMG One makes 1,049 hp, BMW’s quad-motor electric M3 prototype is rumored to be capable of 1,341 hp — and 2025 is a long way away in terms of electric developments, so AMG adding a third or fourth motor won’t raise eyebrows.
Powering those motors will be a pack from U.S. outfit Sila Nanotechnologies that replaces graphite anodes in the typical lithium-ion battery with silicon. The result’s said to be less expensive and more powerful, Mercedes citing a 40% increase in density for the same battery size. Along with the AMG.EA platform’s design, AMG vehicle designers will use the battery’s benefits to draw a car Autocar says will be about as long as the 199-inch AMG GT 4-Door but sit “much lower than … the EVA platform” used by the AMG EQS 53. The lowest point on the AMG GT 4-Door sits 4.6 inches off the ground, the EQS 53 limbos under that by three-tenths of an inch. A car “much lower” than that is going to qualify as a reptile.
The One-Eleven Concept provided clues to tech like a full-width high-def screen in AMG’s electric car. The AR headset necessary to engage with the complete vehicle interface will, hopefully, remain a few more years in the future.
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