If you think Mercedes-Benz dealerships already offer a dizzying array of AMG models, brace yourself—more are coming in 2016. In an interview with Automotive News, Mercedes-AMG’s brand chief Tobias Moers promises that the Benz sub-brand will add at least 10 new AMG-badged Mercedes variants this year. That’d be on top of the 38 such cars AMG already peddles globally.
Why the huge increase? Sales—and lots of them. Mercedes moved 68,875 AMG-branded products last year, an increase of 40 percent over the previous year’s sales. Clearly, the ubiquity of AMGs in showrooms isn’t turning customers off, with the addition of less-expensive AMGs such as the CLA45 and GLA45 apparently failing to dim the luster of more expensive models. Today there exists at least one high-performance AMG variant of pretty much each and every Mercedes-Benz model save for the Sprinter van. Some Benzes even have multiple AMG models—such as the S-class-based S63 and S65—a trend that will expand in the wake of Benz’s decision to fold AMG Sport models (previously not considered full AMGs) into full-blown AMGs. Already, this has birthed the Mercedes-AMG C43 sedan and coupe, the E43 sedan, and the GLC43 crossover.
We suspect that going forward, the introduction of more “43”-branded cars (which use six-cylinder engines instead of the AMG-typical V-8) will get Mercedes-AMG close to, if not all the way, to its goal of over 10 new models this year. And let’s not forget Benz’s relentless development of BMW-chasing niche products such as the GLC coupe and GLE coupe, the coupe/SUV mongrels designed to chase BMW’s X4 and X6. As new Mercedes products like these are introduced, it offers more donor vehicles for Mercedes-AMG to modify and sell.
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