- Mercedes-AMG has published a teaser video featuring its new electric sedan.
- The prototype appears to have a V-8 interior sound and even paddles to shift simulated gears.
- Fake combustion engine sounds and gears are becoming more popular among new performance EVs.
Electric vehicles are quicker than equivalent combustion cars, but they can’t match all the thrills of ICE because they’re almost completely silent. Most manufacturers have so far mostly provided futuristic spaceship acceleration sounds inside the vehicle to give a sense of speed and give drivers an audible representation of how much they’re pushing the vehicle.
Now, Mercedes-AMG is on the verge of revealing its Porsche Taycan rival, and it’s apparently stepping up its sound game with V8 noises and simulated shifts. The manufacturer recently published a teaser showing a camouflaged prototype, and it sounds like the driver will be given control over the simulated gears.
It’s hardly alone in this. Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N features a combustion engine sound to make it more exciting, but it also features simulated gears and a simulated rev limiter. All are completely pointless and may actually make the car a bit slower, but the effect they have on the thrill of driving is undeniable.
Dodge took it in a different direction with its patented Fratzonic exhaust, basically an exterior speaker that emulates the sound of a V-8, in the hopes of making its electric Charger more attractive. You can even “rev it” in neutral, just like you would a combustion car, and it’s certainly a bold decision. For the hot Abarth version of its 500e, Fiat employed a similar solution to make it sound like an ICE car from the outside.
Mercedes already has V8-inspired interior and exterior sounds in its fully electric G580. The exterior sound is pretty futuristic, but it still somehow has the spirit of a real engine, and it perfectly matches the car. Inside, what you hear if you enable G-Roar is pretty much a subdued version of what you would hear in a G63 but without the shifting.
As I discovered during a recent drive of the G580, having G-Roar enabled is a must if you want to get the G-Wagen experience that you expect. How it sounds makes such a big difference in the driving experience, and G-Roar is a success. It makes me wonder if people who took a G580 for a test drive had it turned off and it contributed to their decision not to buy. It seems few people have actually bought one, and it’s not living up to Mercedes’ expectations.
So what can we expect from this upcoming high-test AMG electric sport sedan?
In the video, you can hear the clicking of what is potentially a shift paddle perfectly matching the simulated shifts. This is likely intentional, strongly suggesting the AMG electric sedan will allow you to shift gears just like in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
Even though the V8 sound is used in an exterior shot of the prototype, when it’s powersliding, all you can hear is the tires. This suggests that it won’t have an aggressive fake exterior sound like the Dodge Charger or Abarth 500e, so the V8 noises will be purely for the occupants.
Mercedes-AMG knows how important the V8 is for its brand identity. Company execs even admit that ditching the big engine in the latest C63 for a four-cylinder plug-in hybrid made it largely misunderstood, to put it gently, by its core buyers.
Perhaps now the plan is for Mercedes-AMG to lean into what it’s good at, even if there’s no gasoline required this time.
