Mercedes’ S-Class has been a byword for excellence since the first one officially debuted with the W116 chassis way back in 1972. They’ve regularly been the first cars on the market to debut new and exciting tech like adaptive cruise control (Distronic), seatbelt pre-tensioners and even anti-lock brakes, which debuted in 1978. The 2024 Mercedes-AMG S63 E-Performance doesn’t debut anything that groundbreaking, but holy hell, does it ever carry that tradition of excellence forward.
Full Disclosure: Mercedes-AMG wanted me to drive the S63 E Performance so badly that they put me up for a night in a swanky hotel in Santa Monica and teased me with a 300SEL 6.3 that I wasn’t allowed to drive at an ostentatious Malibu mansion. The 6.3 was brown.
The S63 E-Performance is notable for several reasons. First, it’s the most powerful production Mercedes ever, with a whopping 791 hp and 1,055 lb-ft of torque coming from the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine and electric motor combined. Next, it weighs as much as a Ford F-150 Raptor, at nearly 6,000 lbs. It also is the first plug-in hybrid S-Class, and it’s the first S-Class not to have a stand-up hood emblem. Big changes are clearly afoot in Affalterbach.
The S63 E Performance features a 13.1-kWh direct-cooled battery pack which, apart from eating up trunk space, lets you drive the S63 on pure electric power for around 20 miles (based on Euro estimates, EPA figures will likely be lower and come out towards the end of 2023) and at speeds up to 87 mph. AMG claims the car will hit 60mph in just 3.3 seconds and rocket up to an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph.
The S63 gets a ton of other AMG-specific tweaks as well, like a two-speed rear axle that helps to maximize both acceleration and top speed, an AMG-tuned air suspension and drive modes and a bunch of AMG-specific styling tweaks like the big Panamericana grille which does an awesome job of hiding all the ADAS sensors packed into the front of the car. The nine-speed MCT transmission is also tuned by AMG and generally works well.
Here’s the thing, though. All that performance is really pretty pointless. Don’t get me wrong, launching a car that big and heavy is pretty intense, but all that weight makes those huge power and torque figures feel “normal S63 fast” at the cost of extra complexity. I like that there is always power available for a quick overtake, but the exciting part of this car is its ability to drive on electric power alone.
Why is that exciting? Well, first, EVs rule. Secondly – and this is more germane to our pals in Europe at the moment – lots of cities like London, for example, are starting to charge people with big angry combustion engines to come into the city center. Some other cities are banning internal combustion altogether. The S63 E Performance could be a game changer for the well-heeled businessperson. Over here, we’ll appreciate the extra cruising range that the hybrid system will probably give us from the S63's 20.1-gallon tank, and of course, some people will pick it over a non-AMG S-Class just for the badge.
While I’m lukewarm on the power, I am completely floored by the chassis. The S63 can do things that a car its size shouldn’t be able to. I thought AMG was bananas for sending me out on Malibu’s impossibly tight and narrow canyon roads, but this huge boat of a car has an agility that would shame some cars half its size. This is largely down to the AMG-tuned air suspension and four-wheel steering, neither of which is revolutionary on its own, but both are executed flawlessly here.
I also appreciate how permissive the traction and stability control programs are, even outside of Sport Plus mode. It lets the car move around – even breaking rear traction – but intervenes smoothly and quickly to keep things from getting out of hand. I suspect that the S63 E Performance would be a blast around a racetrack, despite that definitely not being its intended use case.
Apart from the zany powertrain, the rest of the car is largely just an S-Class, which means it’s utterly spectacular. Everything looks and feels expensive. The seats are incredibly adjustable and comfortable, and they feature the ability to turn heating and cooling on simultaneously, which is dumb, but I love it. The interior is well-isolated from the road, and while AMG attempts to pipe in some sound, it doesn’t sound good or even remotely like the V8 that lives under the hood. There’s a weird, raspy five-cylinder note to it in Sport Plus, and not in a cool way, though this may get adjusted as the car gets closer to going on sale.
Also, being an S-Class, the S63 is packed to the gunwales with safety tech. This thing has everything you’d expect on a modern six-figure car, and it all works well. This includes adaptive cruise control, driver attention monitoring, active lane keep assist, active lane centering, evasive steering assist, brake intervention, blind spot assist and the list goes on. When you shell out for an S-Class, you expect the best, and you won’t be let down here.
Interior downsides are minor and few in number but include Mercedes’ weird-ass-gonna-make-me-barf 3-D effect on the gauges and heads-up display, but this is easy to turn off. Also, the hybrid pack eats into trunk space (10.8 cubic feet vs 18 cubic feet), so while not exactly sports-car-small, the S63 PHEV’s boot isn’t what you’d call cavernous.
Mercedes is playing it a little close to the chest by saying that the S63 E-Performance will hit the market around the end of the year. We’d guess that will end up being December. Mercedes is even cagier about pricing for its latest technological terror. A normal S63 sans hybrid will run you around $153,000 before you get to adding options. We’d be shocked if this new one doesn’t run closer to the $170,000 mark, given the advertised performance and the added cost to manufacture it.
So, with all that in mind, what’s my takeaway?
The S63 E-Performance isn’t really improved by the added power and tech, at least not in ways that the US market will appreciate. Sure, it’s quick as hell for something that weighs as much as a fishing trawler, and despite the handful of minor pre-production hiccups I experienced during my limited time with the car, when it’s ready for showtime it will have been ruthlessly engineered to be as good as it can be, as is Mercedes’ custom, particularly with the S-Class. The thing is, the hybrid system feels like a solution to a problem that only exists because of regulations and brand image, not a remedy to something that the S-Class was lacking previously.
I absolutely loved the 2024 S63 E Performance, but for my money, I’d buy an S580e and pocket the difference. If badge, aggressive styling or bench racing bragging rights matter to you, then you’ll love the S63, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
