By 2020, Mercedes will be the best-selling and most profitable luxury-car brand, this is the hope of Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche. With all the new models we’ve been seeing lately, they are well on their way to take the lead or at minimum, close the gap with BMW and Audi.
In 2013 we will likely see the unveiling of the new CLA compact sedan based on the A-Cass, the new C-Class, facelifted E-Class and probably the S-Class, which will have five variants, including a coupe and a cabriolet.
Today, the prototype for the next generation C-Class AMG was photographed by some very stealthy spy photogs. The new C-Class will make a radical departure from the styling of the current model, will be lighter and packed with new safety technology. This will serve as an ideal platform to take the fight to the BMW M3 and Audi RS4 and RS5.
Instead of continuing with the 6.3-liter naturally aspirated V8, they will use the new twin-turbo 5.5-liter V8, like the one used by nearly the entire AMG family. There are currently four states of output for this engine. In the E63 AMG and CLS63 AMG, this means 525 hp in base configuration, which is what the C63 AMG will likely make now. However, it’s not inconceivable that a new lower output version with about 500 hp will be engineered.
According to Autoevolution, the ‘63’ name will be dropped, and the fast sedan will actually be called the C55 AMG. This is not that strange if AMG were to make two versions, like with the G-Class and SL-Class but we’ll wait to see.
