Mercedes-AMG S63 facelift spied – Affalterbach’s hybrid answer to the Bentley Flying Spur
Mercedes-AMG is testing its updated S-class, with more EV range and overall performance expected from the monster limo
Not so long ago, you’d associate numbers like 791bhp and 1055lb ft of torque with hypercars or at least, the very upper tier of supercars. Alas, at Mercedes-AMG, these apply to everything from a four-door luxury saloon, to a flagship super GT (more, in the case of the new AMG GT 63 E Performance). Those figures are exactly what the current Mercedes-AMG S-class sports, combining thumping V8 power with the instant motive punch of a two-speed electric motor at the rear axle. Those figures could also be bested by the updated car, seen here in prototype form, when the facelifted S63 appears.
As we can see in the images, you couldn’t really mistake it for anything else. Being a facelift, only the nose and tail of this prototype for Mercedes-AMG’s excessively endowed luxo barge are in full disguise. Still, we can pick out a few details worthy of note. The most prominent of which, the front lights, which incorporate a twin three-pointed-star day-running light motif, similar to that on some of Mercedes’ latest models. We’ve seen it on the new CLA and will see it upon the reveal of the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door EV too. It’s also visible in the rear lights of this S63, looking very similar to those in the latest E-class. It’s a distinctive, if a little on-the-nose, lighting signature that will make the S-class unmistakable as a Mercedes even at a distance.
Not that it was particularly vanishing or shy before, or that the existing Mercedes badge wasn’t already visible from space. Other AMG tropes are alive and well – those big angry exhausts, big angry wheels and big angry gaping vents at the front.
In terms of performance we’re unsure exactly how much its already voluminous power reserves are set to swell. That they will at all is only an assumption at this point. At present that 791bhp and 1055lb ft maximum output can get the 2595kg barge to 62mph from standstill in just 3.3sec on the way to a 180mph top speed with the AMG Driver’s package.
What we can expect is a bit more electric-only range. At the moment the S63 E Performance is claimed to be good for 21 miles of silent, sans-V8 running which while informing an improvement compared to just using a V8 in the CO2 output stakes and in terms of appeal as a company car, there’s plenty of headroom, especially compared to rivals. Just look across and slightly upward, to the Bentley Flying Spur Speed, which now in Ultra Performance Hybrid form, is good for up to 50 miles of range and an official CO2 rating of just 33g/km, putting it in the lowest bracket possible for a combustion car in terms of VED and remarkably, in the 9 per cent BIK range for a company car in the 25/26 tax year.
By contrast, the S63 produces 104g/km, putting it in the 26 per cent BIK range and four brackets up from the Bentley in terms of first registration VED. Dull points to be making about a Mercedes-AMG V8 saloon but important nonetheless. Gone are those halcyon days when a top-flight Mercedes-AMG S-class shared some under-bonnet hardware with Pagani hypercars…
Our biggest hope for the next S63? That it rediscovers a bit of the refinement in its ride – the whole point of an S-class – that the current car dispensed with when imbued with AMG’s anabolics. We’ll know more when it’s revealed, which could be as soon as at the IAA Frankfurt show in September, along with the rest of the updated S-class range.
