Mercedes-AMG GT Wants To Be Batman

Mercedes-AMG executive says that he wants the cars to be rough and dangerous, just like Batman.
 

Batman or Superman? If you had to pick a favorite superhero between the two, who would it be? Mercedes-AMG believes your answer would be Batman. Why would the high-performance arm of a luxury car maker care about DC Comic characters? Michael Schiebe is a board member for Mercedes-AMG. He recently told Motor Trend that “We are Batman, we are not Superman because Superman is a little bit like the nice son-in-law. Batman is the one who is too dangerous for your daughter,” says Schiebe. “We want to be the dangerous son-in-law.”
 
He goes on to describe the Dark Knight as a little rough and not perfect. That is how he sees future AMG models. Every Monday there is a product strategy meeting. Schiebe says in that meeting “When new product is being planned, we ask ‘is this Batman enough?’”
 
Interesting.
 
AMG Customers Don’t Want a Mercedes
According to Schiebe, buyers who want an AMG don’t want a regular Mercedes. They want something that is more aggressive looking and of course offers higher performance. He says that the brand is successful when it is edgy.
 
He wants to put that edginess on steroids and give the cars a killer design and class leading performance. In his opinion that is the only way that AMG will achieve their lofty sales target.
 
200,000 AMGs a Year
In the next three years AMG will be releasing an unprecedented number of new models. “We have never launched so many products in the history of AMG,” says Schiebe. His goal is to sell 200,000 AMGs a year. To do that he knows that every AMG will need to be better than the competition.
 
It also means that they will still need to offer powerful V8 engines along with powerful EVs. Much to the delight of many AMG fans, the company is currently developing a new family of high-performance V8 engines which should reach the market in 2026.
 

EV Batman
As exciting as new AMG V8 models are, there are some folks that desire all-electric performance. These folks should get the full Batman experience as well. The Mercedes-AMG GT XX Concept shows just what AMG can do with some electrons.
 
The 1,340-horsepower EV super sedan went to the Nardo Ring last month and set 25 EV speed records. And this car is not just vaporware. “We will see the production version of the four-door super sedan next year and it will be kickass, says Mercedes-Benz chairman and CEO Ola Källenius.
 
For the Superman Types
Not everyone wants to be Batman. That is true even within the walls of Mercedes-Benz. “I don’t think we should go too Batman,” says Mercedes-Benz head of design Gorden Wagener. He wants to keep the cars from being overly aggressive and would advocate to tone them down a bit.
 
He thinks that an overly aggressive design could turn off female buyers. Fair enough. But we don’t think there would be much of an argument if AMG also produced a few Catwoman models as well.