Mercedes-AMG hypercar leaks ahead of Frankfurt motor show debut

Overall, the latest image of Project One also serves to emphasis the width of the new hypercar, which receives an oversized Mercedes-Benz badge and an AMG graphic within its central front air duct.     

Mercedes-AMG’s most ambitious road car to date will be powered by an advanced petrol-electric plug-in hybrid drivetrain based around a Formula 1-derived petrol engine that operates in combination with four electric motors to deliver an overall output of more than 1000bhp in its most performance-oriented driving mode.

The high-tech driveline uses a heavily revised version of the electrically turbocharged 1.6-litre V6 housed in the Mercedes-AMG W08 EQ Power+ race car, as driven by Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in the 2017 F1 World Championship.

Like the German car maker’s latest F1 race car, the upcoming four-wheel-drive AMG road car features both MGU-K (motor generation unit – kinetic) and MGU-H (motor generation unit - heat) functions as part of a complex Energy Recovery System (ERS) around the mid-mounted petrol engine at the rear.

The former, developing 134bhp, acts as an electric motor under acceleration and a generator to recuperate kinetic energy under braking, with the latter, rated at 80kW, used to electrically power the petrol engine’s turbocharger for instant response and convert heat from the turbocharger into electrical energy for storage in the new car’s sophisticated battery.

Together, the combustion engine and the rear-mounted electric motors provide drive exclusively to the rear wheels.

Channelling Project One’s heady reserves is an eight-speed automated manual gearbox that acts as a structural bearing element within the driveline at the rear of the engine, where it supports an intricate five-link rear suspension featuring pushrod style spring and damper units.

In a departure from the car maker’s rear-wheel-drive F1 race car, the new headlining AMG model’s front wheels can be driven individually by two electric motors and a pair of fixed ratio gearboxes mounted within the front axle assembly, with torque distributed selectively to the wheel with the most grip – a layout mirroring that of the earlier pure-electric Mercedes-AMG SLS Electric Drive to provide Project One with four-wheel drive capability. Called AMG Toque Dynamics, the electronically control system mimics the rear wheel torque vectoring effect seen on other less extreme four-wheel-drive AMG models.

The two front-mounted electric motors deliver a combined 322bhp exclusively to the front wheels, providing Project One with a claimed range of up to 16 miles in pure electric mode, according to Moers. When required, the MGU-K can also provide electric drive to the rear wheels, essentially endowing it with pure-electric four-wheel-drive capability.

The battery used to power Project One’s four electric motors is based on the same lithium ion cell technology found in the Mercedes-Benz F1 racer. Boasting four time the energy density as the battery used in the race car, it is mounted low towards the front of the floor structure, providing it a favourable front-to-rear weight distribution and low centre of gravity.

The advanced new plug-in hybrid system is claimed to weigh 420kg, with the batteries adding a further 100kg. Moers is tightlipped on Project One’s overall kerb weight but admits earlier claims that it will be under 1000kg are premature. “There are a lot of regulatory factors to consider. We have to build in all the safety features, including crash structures,” he says.

Engineering for the hypercar is being carried out in a joint programme between AMG in Affalterbach, Germany and its High Performance Powertrain sister company located in Brixworth, England. Moers claims it achieves a thermal efficiency of 43%. By comparison, the thermal efficiency of AMG’s existing twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 is put at 25%.