Mercedes now offers its E63 saloon and estate as both rear- and all-wheel drive (outside the US). The move undoubtedly increased the model’s appeal, especially for buyers in cooler climates, but now it seems Mercedes is tempted to ditch rear-wheel drive completely for the next iteration of the E63.
Australia’s Motoring informs us that the next E63 will most likely switch to the downsized 4.0-liter biturbo V8 that’s already present in other models. Additionally, they report that Mercedes has indeed also thought of giving up on the rear-wheel drive setup in favor of AWD.
The discussion was brought about as the next-gen E-Class will be available with all-wheel drive in right-hand drive for the first time; previous models could not be specced this way.
The source quotes AMG boss Tobias Moers, which confirmed talks of going AWD-only but made it clear that it would only happen “if we can manage it then we have a nice all-wheel drive system in the car which provides a nice drifting behaviour. Then it’s OK.”
There’s also another reason to push for the switch, as AMG’s current models that can be had as either awd or rwd are reportedly faster when drive goes to all four wheels.
We wouldn’t blame them for going down that route, especially from a business point of view: in Germany, for instance, around 95 percent of all E63s sold since the introduction of AWD have been bought with it.
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