The conversion of Mercedes-Benz’s hot shop AMG from a boutique builder of big engines into a proper car company is nearly complete after it sold more than 99,000 cars last year.
AMG thought it had a pretty good year in 2013, when it sold a then-record 32,200 cars. Just three years later, it tripled that to 99,235 deliveries around the world, with sales jumping 44 per cent over 2015.
It has brought its all-new 4.0-litre biturbo V8 from the GT sports car into the C- and E-Class, plus its SUV family, but it’s also reaping the benefits from extending downwards with the turbocharged V6 '43' and the turbo four-cylinder '45' models.
"We're on the road to worldwide success with our strategic portfolio expansion and can look back on a sensational year,” AMG chairman Tobias Moers said.
“The 63 series models still constitute our core product line, and in addition, our AMG GT series, which was developed entirely in-house, is now available as a broad-based family, with which we have impressively demonstrated our expertise as a sports car brand.
“At the same time, our broad portfolio puts us in the perfect position for further sustained growth. Our task now is not just to celebrate the AMG success story, but, in one of the most exciting periods of automotive history, to help shape the performance of the future," he said.
Moers’ company added 10 new models in 2016, bringing AMG’s total to more than 50, ranging from the A 45 AMG five-door, four-cylinder hatchback to the biturbo V12 S 65 AMG. Along with moving to a nine-speed automatic transmission, AMG also finally figured out how to deliver V8 engines and all-wheel drive in right-hand drive bodyshells.
It will bump up the portfolio’s top end considerably this year with the addition of its Formula 1-inspired 1000hp hypercar, with the front wheels driven by an electric motor in what it insists will be the most advanced car on the market.
Red Bull Racing’s Adrian Newey might have something to say about that when his Aston Martin collaboration car, the AM-RB 001, is launched, but Benz has solidly beaten Red Bull on the track for the last three seasons.
Its GT racing program took 18 wins around the world in 2016, including taking first, second, third, fourth and sixth places in the Nürburgring 24 Hour race. On the downside, it was scrubbed from qualifying for the Spa 24 Hour race for illegal changes to its engine management software.