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Mercedes-Benz AMG Says Hybrids Are Better For Performance than Diesels

Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division will focus on Hybrid sports cars, not diesels. rising fuel economy standards will mean that even the high end cars that are currently able to use big, thirsty engines will have to get significantly more efficient to avoid skewing the corporate average fuel economy. BMW and Audi are working towards high performance diesel engines, but AMG says that diesels do not provide the aggressive feel that gasoline engines can.

The Mercedes F1 team is currently dealing with the same problems AMG is looking at in the future. "The issue," Mercedes-AMG Chairman Ola Källenius said, "is that we can’t make (a hybrid’s) battery weight disappear with a magic wand. Fortunately, with the new F1 (racing) regulations, what they are working on and what we are working on are converging."

Fans of AMG’s big V12 engines don’t have to worry too much though, Källenius said that AMG’s 621-horsepower 6.0-liter V12 engine in the SL65 AMG and S65 AMG will be viable as an option for five to six years, according to Edmunds. Källenius also mentioned that the turbocharged V8 engine found in the SL63 AMG and S63 AMG, which makes 530-horsepower in its current tune, will be able to replace the V12 when the time comes, though it does lack the cache that a dozen cylinders brings.