Mercedes-AMG to Release Hybrid Engines in 2020
Giancarlo Perlas August 1, 2015
Mercedes-AMG is focusing on releasing hybrid models in 2020. That is due to the pressure for carmakers to meet emission targets set by the international community, particularly the countries it considers as the three-pointed star marque’s biggest markets.
In an interview of AMG’s head of research and development Thomas Weber with Autocar, he confirmed that his group is working on the existing hybrid technology of the brand, which is currently being utilized by its Formula One cars. They plan to complete the technology transfer to their production cars by the year 2020 in order to significantly reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption of their models.
Weber admitted that the task is a huge challenge to AMG. However, he pointed out that adopting the hybrid technology presents a huge opportunity for them.
The European Union was pinpointed by the source as the entity that is putting a lot of pressure on Daimler in this matter. In the mandate of the EU with the parent of Mercedes, it required the company to cap its average emissions to 101 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2020. Weber mentioned though that the year following the deadline would be the more difficult part as every car sold by Daimler must already conform to the tough emissions target.
Weber revealed that the reason why they are buying time until 2020 to introduce the new engines, which feature low emissions but with bias to performance, is that customers will not buy it.
As a remedy, the executive said they are looking at including a petrol hybrid hardware in the mix that minimizes the weight of adding huge batteries and giving its cars a major boost while keeping its emissions in check.
