Is there a new speed king in town? Not just on the tarmac, though the new Mercedes‑AMG GT 4‑Door Coupé can get to 62mph from rest in the same time it takes to say its name (I just timed myself – 2.06 seconds versus 2.1 seconds for the Mercedes).
No – the new Merc-AMG is the new fastest charger in the west, with a charge speed of 600kW if you can find a charge point beefy enough to cope with its strenuous demands.
Mercedes says the car can juice up with an impressive 286 miles (460km) in just 10 minutes of charging, and it only takes 11 minutes to get from 10% to 80% battery capacity.
The previous champion was the Xpeng G6, which has a maximum charge rate of an almost snail-like 451kW in comparison to the Mercedes. Although the G6 starts a smidge under £45k against the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupés rather lofty but officially unconfirmed price of around £200k.
BYD is threatening to take the AMG's crown when its posh sub-brand Denza launches the Z9GT electric estate later this year – we're expecting to see the car at Goodwood, and it'll feature BYD's new Blade 2 second-generation batteries that can charge at up to 1,500kW on one of BYD's own charging stations.
The Mercedes is full of fancy tech though, including the 800V NCMA batteries that are designed for repeated high performance charging and discharging. Merc says that the specially developed cell chemistry inside the packs is designed for both performance and longevity.
The company also says that the charging system can switch between 800V and 400V setups and that it has been designed to account for five different global rapid charging standards – CCS2 in Europe, CHAdeMO in Japan, GB/T in China, CCS1 in South Korea and NACS in the USA.
The new Mercedes is also powered by innovative axial-flux motors, which I think have something to do with the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Time travel? Perhaps. Or maybe you’d be better off reading Tom Ford's excellent review to find out more.
And if you’re interested in reading more about the fastest charging electric cars on sale then you should click here to read this equally interesting top 10 from Lucas.
