AMG has built a business around tuning Mercedes-Benzes. It also makes some dedicated models of its own, but don’t expect that to grow much more in the near future – and certainly not in the form of a standalone AMG sport-ute.
“Regarding SUVs, we have a broad portfolio within Mercedes we do derivatives of,” Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers told CarAdvice. “I know a car like this makes an appetite for more but we are so fully loaded and still expanding… there’s nothing on the table.”
The reason? Because it would cannibalize Mercedes-Benz sales. “We have to consider we have an overall business responsibility in Mercedes and AMG in common,” said Moers, “and if you would do some dedicated AMG kind of car, there would be a big piece of cake we would be wanting that would be substituted. So from an overall business approach there is no sense to it.”
The German automaker apparently didn’t think that would be the case with the new AMG GT 4-Door, which slots in above the CLS. The four-door revealed in Geneva last week is AMG’s third dedicated model and the second currently in its portfolio, following the SLS AMG and the AMG GT coupe/convertible.
Project One will expand the range even further. But while we could envision a dedicated crossover to take on the likes of the Lamborghini Urus and forthcoming sport-utes from Ferrari and Aston Martin, Daimler evidently feels otherwise.
In the meantime, expect to see the engineers in Affalterbach preparing high-performance versions of just about everything Mercedes makes.