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Mercedes-AMG EQ-GT Looks Like the Electric SLS Reboot

Company bosses recently admitted the full-electric EQC crossover is a failure. It's only been on the market for a short time, but Mercedes has actually been failing at electric cars for much longer.
Mercedes-AMG EQ-GT Looks Like the Electric SLS Reboot 4 photos
Photo: superrenderscars/Instagram
Mercedes-AMG EQ-GT Looks Like the Electric SLS RebootMercedes-AMG EQ-GT Looks Like the Electric SLS RebootMercedes-AMG EQ-GT Looks Like the Electric SLS Reboot
We often wonder if the company isn't filled with engineers and executives that only like V8 engines. They tolerate the people making four-cylinder turbos because they bring in money, but the two groups never mingle.

As the biggest company by far in the luxury business, Mercedes has a lot of leftover cash, yet it never diverted a lot of it towards alternative transportation, even after Tesla became dominant.

In 2013, Jeremy Clarkson was still the lead singer of the Top Gear rock band and he did a track comparison between the SLS AMG Black Series and something called the SLS Electric Drive. Yes, a full-electric version of their previous bespoke supercar, the one with the funky gullwing doors.

Tesla was already gaining traction back then, and the performance of the Model S was undeniable. Yet Mercedes never delivered on its promise to put the SLS ED into production. It was shown again as the SLS E-Cell, wrapped in yellow foil, yet no customer would ever own one.

This rendering brings back the idea behind the E-Cell as a fully electric reincarnation of the current AMG GT. Mercedes currently has a growing family of cars dubbed "EQ" that includes not only the purely electric ones but also plug-in hybrids called EQ Power and mild-hybrids of the EQ Boost variety.

In the case of the AMG GT, the EQ makeover includes a new grille that's more streamlined than on the V8 models. There's obviously no exhaust system, and the wheels are straight out of a sci-fi movie. But any German company needs to first invent some kind of fancy new EV platform with 600+ horsepower and only then try to take in the usual profits.



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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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