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Mercedes Confirms Next A45 AMG Will Have Over 400 HP from All-New Turbo Engine

Mercedes-AMG CEO Tobias Moers has just confirmed the next generation of the A45 AMG will have an all-new four-cylinder engine that delivers more than 400 horsepower. Why? Because they can, and screw everybody else.
Mercedes Confirms Next A45 AMG Will Have Over 400 HP from All-New Turbo 1 photo
Photo: Mercedes-Fans
Moers told Auto Express magazine that "it is important for our customers to have the most powerful car in the segment." Since Volkswagen plans to take the Golf R to 400 horsepower in 2016, the A45 needs to step up its game.

Volkswagen has always been crazy about making Golfs, so has Audi after it discovered the A3. However, we can honestly say Mercedes never seemed so excited about the A-Class. In fact, all the compact models up until now were treated with a distant neglect.

As any hot hatch aficionado already knows, the balance of this segment had been upset this weekend when the A45 received 381 PS, giving it a 14 PS edge over the RS3 Sportback. By the end of the year, all other AMG models that come with this now famous 2-liter turbo engine will have the same output.

In a recent company statement, Mercedes announced it was investing €1 billion in the Rastatt factory in Germany to prepare it for the arrival of the next generation of compact cars. The range is already larger than that of BMW or Audi and in a few years may welcome the GLB, described by some as the "baby G-Class". It will mix the practicality of the B-Class with some of the features of the Gelandewagen.

An evolution of the current MFA platform will be used by all these cars. It will be slightly lighter, but modularity will be its biggest advantage. However, the question that's probably going to be on everyone's lips is: how is Mercedes going to squeeze 400 horsepower from a 2-liter engine?

The answer could come in the form of a second turbo and the introduction of electric turbocharging. Audi has already hinted this is the way of its future products with three concepts.

We expect the next generation of A-Class to arrive in 2018, so there's plenty of time to figure things out.
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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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