‘Must have been drunk’: Daimler boss on board approval for Mercedes AMG Hypercar

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius admits that while the AMG One Hypercar has been a great show of intent, the challenges to take it to production have been enormous and that the company's supervisory board ‘must have been drunk’ when giving the green light to its production. The AMG One Hypercar was first showcased at the Frankfurt Auto Show back in 2017 but these past few years have seen numerous challenges and roadblocks to take it to and out of production line.

The AMG One Hypercar boasts of a Formula One-derived hybrid powertrain with a 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 at its core. It also has a motor-generator unit-kinetic motor, a motor-generator unit-head motor, and two electric motors for a combined power output of 1,000 hp. While these are some extremely impressive specs, the process to bring AMG One Hypercar to real-world conditions has been anything but. “The team at AMG and the High Performance Powertrain Formula 1 arm came to us about four years ago and said ‘we’ve got a great idea, let’s put a Formula 1 engine into a road car’," Kallenius said recently during an event in Monaco. "I will have to go back to check the meeting minutes, but I’m sure we were drunk when we said yes."

Mercedes had confirmed that it would produce 275 units of AMG One Hypercar and that each of these have already been sold despite its massive price tag of 2.27 million euros. But deliveries haven't commenced yet. It is reported that the team is working overtime to solve various challenges which also includes meeting WLTP emission standards.

The focus on having a strong link between F1 and AMG brand, however, remains as is with Kallenius confident of AMG One Hypercar hitting roads soon.