Spy Photos: 2028 Mercedes-AMG E 63 Successor Goes Fully Electric

After months of radio silence that left AMG enthusiasts wondering if development had stalled in Affalterbach, spy photos captured at the Nurburgring reveal a zero-emission take on the E 63 high-performance sedan. Replacing the AMG-branded EQE in the German automaker's lineup, this model is certain to polarize opinion.

For purists who found the company's recent dedicated EV designs a bit underwhelming, the most reassuring takeaway from these shots lies in the silhouette. AMG has officially abandoned the jellybean aesthetic that defined the original EQ range. Instead, the next iteration of the E 63 wears a proper three-volume body, a steeply angled windshield, a long hood, and a defined trunk lid.

Flared wheel arches are on the menu as well, and in typical AMG fashion, the muscular stance only adds to the visual drama. Looking like a proper executive car, the all-new E 63 is a welcome return to proper luxury sedan proportions. Instead of production light clusters, the camouflaged prototype wears provisional units. The front bumper doesn't appear to be the final design either.

Even so, the upright grille area is hardly surprising when you remember what Mercedes did with the all-electric versions of the GLC and C-Class. Zooming in also reveals low-slung intakes engineered to feed cool air into heat exchangers, the front drive unit, and the front brakes. A lip spoiler and two canards are featured as well, improving the midsizer's front-end stability at speed.

Beneath the swirling camo, a closer look at the bodysides is enough to understand how big an influence the internal combustion E-Class is for the E-Class with EQ Technology. The replacement for the EQE shows a long hood that flows into a steeply raked windshield, transitioning into a well-defined roofline with a distinct rear end that embraces convention over aerodynamic blobness.

Gloss-black window pillars also need mentioning, with gloss black featured on the door handles as well. Equipped with a tow bar, the development vehicle sadly doesn't have final taillights. On the bright side, everyone and their dog already knows that Mercedes will go for three-pointed-star lighting signatures at both ends, in line with the electric versions of the CLA, GLA, and C-Class.

Interestingly, the prototype rolls on mismatched alloy wheels. The front multispokes are joined by a twin-spoke design for the rear axle. In any case, wheel diameter and the tire choice are indicative of a sporty vehicle. Underneath this reassuringly traditional sheet metal, Mercedes and AMG will leverage YASA's axial-flux electric motor technology in the name of performance.

Be it an AMG version of the MB.EA platform or the AMG.EA from the GT 4-Door Coupe, hearsay suggests over 800 horsepower and massive peak torque. Given the sheer weight of a mid-size luxury electric sedan, 900 to 1,000 horsepower are good estimates in their own right. The axial-flux design is of utmost importance here, for AFMs deliver higher power and torque density in a package that is half the weight of a radial-flux electric drive unit.

By packaging multiple axial-flux motors across both axles, AMG can execute precise vectoring to individual wheels with millisecond response times. In turn, this effectively neutralizes the mass penalty of a heavy lithium-ion battery with pack-to-chassis integration and laser-welded cell housings.

With a debut slated for the latter part of 2027 and initial customer deliveries targeting early 2028, Affalterbach's executive sedan is gearing up for a radical transition that will lose a handful of E 63 loyalists in favor of new customers open to full-electric performance. Love it or hate it, the newcomer will easily best its V8-powered forerunner to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour).