2025 Mercedes-AMG C63 first drive: Who needs a V8?

For the current era – one that goes overboard in pumping technology into nearly everything, especially every performance car yet – no ride is more hyper-engineered than the 2025 Mercedes-AMG C63 S E Performance, a plug-in hybrid super sedan that’s as technologically convoluted as its name is lengthy.

Plug-in hybrids such as the C63 are how Mercedes’ stroking-mad performance arm, AMG, hopes to remain relevant in the modern age, while it waits for full-fat performance EVs to be developed from the ground up. Yes, the 2025 C63 still burns fossil fuel, but it’s a massive leap ahead of the V8-powered version in efficiency. It replaces a thirsty eight-cylinder engine with half the cylinders, upgraded to make the most of electric assistance.

Car fans will recognize déjà vu because this is the same powertrain as the new GLC63 S E Performance crossover SUV, and it’s new for the ’25 model year, too. Mercedes actually announced the C63 first, but ’29 media event scheduling means we drove the GLC63 first — and we liked it, but we were left scratching our heads. As a sedan, however, the C63 has lower center of gravity and less mass, making the plug-in hybrid powertrain and its attendant driver aids a somewhat better deal overall.

Design and interior

In the case of the new C63, it beefs up the styling of the latest-generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class – which, in its current W206-series incarnation, made its debut for the 2022 model year, without the plug-in option. Rims of the bonnet are reminiscent of traditional Mercedes sports cars. The wheel arches are filled out, and the large wings in the front aero tails hint at the hardcore hardware hiding beneath. Like all great AMGs, it’s a subtle touch-up of a handsome sedan that can still fly under the radar of the masses.

One rule of AMGdom is that cars should retain the luxury appointments of their donor models, and the C-Class base is ideal for that, with its rakish dashboard capped by twin prominent air vents, adjustment switches that float off the door panels on their own little islands, and such details as 64-colour ambient lighting to make you think you’re in something special. The only giveaway that the C63 starts out as a Volume Mercedes is that much of the dashboard’s lower trim is plastic.

It’s a quiet facelift of a nice car that people will still drive without anyone noticing.

AMG-specific interior changes are sport seats with extra bolstering for enthusiastic cornering. They’re standard with simulated leather and microfibre upholstery, but Nappa leather is available as well. At first I thought the AMG steering wheel was a bit too large (though it still allows for the full 360 degrees of motion — the last thing you want to do while driving is elbow yourself in the gut).

C-Class? It’s still compact as a luxury sedan, but you could call it anything bigger than a compact car, and you’d be right. Its interior volume is comparable with that of other luxury-sedan rivals and its centre console stretches wide enough to separate the driver and front passenger, creating a spacious atmosphere for all. Yes, the mechanically similar AMG GLC63 S E Performance offers even more space, as it has the body shell of a crossover, but anybody short of extremely tall people will be fine.

Tech, infotainment, and driver assist

The C63 has a 11.9-inch central touchscreen and 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, augmented by the Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) operating system that powers the automaker’s current models. MBUX provides wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as native voice recognition. Upgrading the base C63 to the Pinnacle models adds augmented-reality navigation and a head-up display.

Granted, this system – the same infotainment you’ll find on standard non-AMG C-Class models – comes at an elevated price, but the C63 is a performance package, not more screens. And the tech itself isn’t bad either. The centre of the dash configurator reminds me of something you might find in the ultra-premium Mercedes S-Class; the graphics and responsiveness make the interface feel upscale; the tiles to navigate the menus make the system easy to use; and the augmented reality feature available for the navigation system projects video with arrows overlaid on them that’s harder to miss than the outdated red notched arrows so many GPS nav systems use. On top of the standard system, you can opt to upgrade to a Burmester 3D surround-sound system.

If you’re buying a C63, you’re paying for performance, not more screens.

For all that the C63 displays a few (hybrid-specific) dials to monitor the battery’s charge and how it’s being put to use, plus the steering-wheel controls for drive modes, artificial sound-enhancement and the degree of regenerative braking (arguably less distracting than the behemoth touchscreen), we found it a chore to memorise the functions of each and were never 100 per cent sure of whether or not we were increasing the degree of regenerative braking or decreasing the degree of stability control.

All but one of these driver aids can be purchased as part of an optional Driver Assistance Package, alongside adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go and automated lane change, blind-spot monitoring (that will also give light steering corrections to nudge the car back to its side of the lane if it detects another vehicle is in that spot), lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning and other features.

Driving experience

There is a lot to think about when it comes to Mercedes. Let’s start with the C63’s 2.0-litre gasoline-electric turbocharged four-cylinder engine. This motor makes good on its name: delivering a series-production record 469hp and 402lb-ft of torque (the ‘gasoline-electric’ part of the equation is a small motor, whose primary job is to keep the turbo spooled up). The engine is paired to a nine-speed automatic transmission.

The electrified back half of the powertrain is an electric motor that drives the rear axle through its own two-speed transmission and a limited-slip differential, powered by a 6.1-kilowatt-hour battery pack also mounted aft to help deliver a near identical 49 per cent/51 per cent front/rear weight split. While curb weight, at 4,817 pounds, is as depressing as it is massive for an eight-cylinder, rear- or all-wheel-drive, two-door offering, electric input enables the system to generate nearly identical total output, 671 horsepower and 752 pound-feet of torque, while adding 168 hp and 236 pond-feet more low-end grunt than the last C63 could muster with its meaty 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8.

The C63 will please anyone who simply wants to go fast.

This also puts the C63 far and away more powerful than its closest rival, the BMW M3 Competition, which squeezes out 523 hp and 479 lb ft of torque (with the optional all-wheel drive system) from its 3.0 litres of turbocharged‐inlined‐six without a hybrid system. That makes little impact on the sheet, but Mercedes’ estimated 3.3‐second zero‐to‐60 mph time puts the new C63 just 0.5 second quicker than its predecessor, and only 0.1 second quicker than what BMW claims for the M3. That’s Quick with a capital Q, of course, and very impressive in helping Mercedes extract that performance from a smaller engine than anything offered by its arch‐rival BMW.

Chassis complexity is on par with the combined complexity of the powertrain, with adaptive suspension, rear-axle steering and sophisticated all-wheel drive acting as the same choke-warp on a tremendous amount of power as the same total pounds of penis, helping to put that prodigious power to the floor. The resulting driving experience isn’t really for the traditionalist, but will certainly do it for anyone who just wants to go vroom. All told, this is a heavy, fast car, and it feels like one, but all you have to do is ostensibly point it where you want to go and trust (blindly) that the tech is doing its job. We felt a little removed from what the thing was doing, as you often do when a car leans this heavily on chassis tech.

A performance car first, a plug-in hybrid second

At press time, official fuel economy and electric range ratings weren’t available, but, really, who cares? These numbers had nothing to do with the priorities of Mercedes-AMG’s engineering team. Mercedes estimates the C63’s all-electric range at a scant eight miles when driven in a humane manner. EV range, meanwhile, is available up to 81 mph, but it’s difficult to maintain given that it has the effect of waking the sleeping Mindflayer.

Drive the C63 like it ought to be driven, on a hilly road, and the engine and savage regenerative braking modes will do a decent job of recharging the battery pack — another trait of the proficient German autobahn builders. That really helps only if your hilly road is located right next to a highway stuffed with traffic. And yes, that happened to be the situation in Malibu, California, where we tested the C63.

How DT would configure this car

Base price for this wunder sedan is $85,050, which is at the top of its class, and the $87,100 Pinnacle trim adds augmented reality navigation, a head-up display and digital light projections. (Yes, digital light projections. W-T-F?) The carmaker’s $1,950 Driver Assistance Package is required to get its full complement of driver aids, so you’re looking at $89,050 just to check all the boxes.

At press time, we didn’t have pricing on the mechanically related GLC63 S E Performance, but expect it will cost a premium for that similarly loaded SUV. The two models share much of their high-tech powertrain, but we suspect the low-slung C63 is the more satisfying drive. Something about the lower centre of gravity that comes with a sedan really comes to the fore. The C63 also costs less than the all-electric Mercedes-AMG EQE sedan, and lacks that car’s rather polarising styling.

For the returning AMG customer, there’s some serious engineering wizardry in the C63 S E Performance. And for everyday usability, this is a sports car that that you can live with. But for a car shopper seeking a sports sedan, there are any number of other vehicles that will deliver the core pleasure of driving prospects for less money. If sticky, twisty back roads are the route, the C63 S E Performance’s more established rivals, such as the BMW M3 or Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing, still offer a more profound value proposition. In terms of fun-per-dollar, the 811hp Lucid Air Pure is a better buy for shoppers looking to bridge to the EV universe.

And for now, that will make the latest plug-in hybrid from AMG a transitional machine, a link between the world of today’s combustion cars and the fleet of performance EVs that will someday come to replace them. It will go down as an engineering masterwork, but whether it still becomes a cult object among driving enthusiasts remains to be seen. The AMG GT 63 S is a shrine to the past, while a shining promise for the future.