Mercedes-AMG is best known for its one-man/one-engine niche assembly process that builds the world’s most powerful roadgoing turbo 4-cylinder, and of course twin-turbo V8s and V12s, which are placed in a range of Mercedes, Maybachs and AMGs, and also supplied to Pagani and Aston-Martin.
But AMG also tunes and tweaks mainstream Mercedes powertrains, like we find here in the new E 53 Hybrid. Mercedes-AMG’s E 53 straight-6 turbo hybrid powertrain delivers exactly the same power rating as the hand-built twin-turbo 4-liter V8 placed in the AMG SL 63: 577 horsepower. You don’t really think that’s a coincidence, do you?
Contributing factors are a turbocharged 3-liter straight-6 that produces 443 horsepower between 5800-6100 rpm, 68 horsepower more than the mainstream E 450 version. It delivers a fine straight-6 yowl without being obtrusive, without going Full Boy Racer.
Thanks to thoughtful plug-and-play engineering, that tasty combustion power is bolstered with an AMG electric motor that spools up 354 lb. ft. of instant on-demand electric torque, more than double the electric torque offered in the mainstream E 450 version of this powertrain. That muscular electric motor’s torque is the real difference that makes this E-class a worthy AMG tuner car for those who value the benefits of exemplary performance but don’t need a snarling beast of a high-performance car.
For short periods of time in the RACE START calibration, the powertrain produces 604 horsepower.
ELECTRIC PROPULSION
AMG E 53 has about 40 miles of real-world pure electric range, give or take. That’s an amusing tool in my native California, allowing folks like My Lovely Attorney to travel to a downtown tower a few times a week on pure electric propulsion, with aa brief overnight charge to the small battery pack. But it’s far more useful in European and British “green” city centers zero-emission propulsion is the price of entry to the mile square city. It’s a measure of both the electric motor’s potency, and the demands of engineering relatively low volume vehicles to suit different world markets.
SUSPENSION
AMG E 53 straddles the line between mainstream Mercedes and AMG high-performance. Nudging it closer to the high-performance AMG vehicles, E 53 has a steel spring suspension, which delivers real precision in aggressive cornering. Only occasionally do the vicious road conditions of my native Los Angeles jangle the rear springs. This system must be a dream in Germany or France, or in states like Minnesota that maintain their roads to the highest EU standards. I’d love it in the Texas Hill Country.
But if I had one suggestion for the product planners, it’s to consider offering E 53 with an AMG version of the mainstream airbag suspension rather than only with the spring suspension. Here in Los Angeles, as in much of coastal California where the roads and highways are broken and brutalized due to overpopulation, a plush airbag suspension paired with this punchy hybrid powertrain would serve well, very well indeed. Keep the AMG steering and excellent 2-valve damping, the bigger AMG wheel/tire package, the excellent roll-rates (meaning how quickly and how far the car heels over in cornering), and the predictability all that fine AMG engineering provides, and you have a fine Executive Express for life in California. AMG’s rejoinder would be that this is a performance car and thus the greater precision and control of steel springing is best, but I suspect the airbag take rate in California might be worthwhile.
SUPERSCREEN DASHPANEL: THE BLACK MIRROR
E-class offers the optional Superscreen dash, a polished black ovoid panel that creates the illusion of an unbroken touch-sensitive expanse stretching from A-pillar to A-pillar, the entire width of the dash. There are in fact three screens. Driver’s instrument binnacle, which offers a wide range of display options. The central console, which offers more menu options and layers than I can count. And then the right-side touchscreen display, which converts a passive front-seat passenger into a useful co-pilot able to control a range of systems, including navigation, comms, audio and more.
Superscreen brings a design Wow Factor for first-time passengers, which is worth the price of admission. One quickly figures out which friends are open to the world, open to the technology of the 21st Century, and which would prefer to live in 1983, or even 1953. People either love and admire or disparage the Superscreen “Black Mirror.” Keep a soft cloth in the central storage bin to sweep the black mirror, as it tends to attract dust, just like a big desk computer’s retina screen.
AMG offers the driver assistance package from Mercedes’ depthless well of subsystems, and well worth the $1950. The 30-degree surround camera system and real-time animated plan views of the car during parking are standard. Once this technology is experienced, few people will choose to live without it.
PERFORMANCE SEATING, NOT TRACK-DAY SEATING
My test car, seen here in red, had the AMG performance seating package. It holds the hips and rib cage without being painful on a long drive or threatening to bruise as track day seats can. It’s an example of smart low-volume production, tailoring this car perfectly to its everyday purpose. Look at the tall hip bolsters, which might seem foreboding, yet when dropping into the chair and potentially landing sensitive high-value body parts on the hip bolster, there’s no threat of emasculation or bruising. Nor is there threat of a woman stretching or tearing a fine linen skirt or silk dress when kicking out her legs. The bolsters have the feel of those high-density sponges your better half uses in the shower. Yet they provide excellent placement of the hips for the sort of performance driving one can sanely indulge on the road. Leave the severe castrator side bolsters to vehicles that might see plenty of track day action. This is, after all, an executive 4-door sedan, not a hypercar.
Mercedes-AMG offers performance and high-performance cars with combustion engines, gas-electric hybrids, and pure electric. It’s an unfortunate chess board created by world politics, forcing car companies to develop multiple powertrain systems, and only the very strongest and capable can pull it off. Having driven both AMG EQS electrics, examples of Mercedes and AMG hybrids, and a wide range of Mercedes and AMG combustion cars, Mercedes proves it has unrivaled engineering depth. Only a few other companies can match Mercedes and AMG.
Situated in the borderlands of high-performance, Mercedes-AMG E 53 is an exceptional everyday executive sedan with plenty of knockout punch.
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