Driven: 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance 4-Door Coupe Shocks With Supercar Acceleration

A four-door can’t be a coupe; it can’t be a supercar either, supposedly. Mercedes-Benz begs to differ – on both those points. The 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance 4-Door Coupe is a car that defies definitions. As the name implies, it has four doors, but it’s also referred to as a coupe, continuing a trend set by the Mercedes CLS back in 2004. But it’s the E Performance component that breaks new ground. The AMG GT 4-Door takes the CLS philosophy and brings it to its apex, bundling a twin-turbocharged V8 with a plug-in hybrid system to deliver supercar-rivaling performance.

The “regular” GT 63 S 4-Door Coupe was already an impressive car, packing 577 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque from a twin-turbo V8. For 2024, Mercedes added a new E Performance PHEV model that brings total output to 831 hp and a jaw-dropping 1,032 lb-ft. That’s more than any Audi or BMW, more than any Dodge Hellcat variant, and only outmatched by the quickest electric vehicles on the market. If you want peak acceleration with four doors and a gasoline engine, it’s going to have an AMG badge on it.

Exterior Looks: 4-Door Brute

Though it shares a name with the Mercedes-AMG GT 2-Door sports car, the AMG GT 4-Door actually shares a platform with the E-Class Sedan. It rides on the same 116.2-inch wheelbase as the E-Class, but it’s more than four inches longer at 199 inches and nearly an inch lower at 57 inches. Like other AMG products, it wears the Panamericana grille up front, which looks great but makes it blend in with less expensive models. 10 wheel options are available, five 20-inch units and five 21-inch wheels. Our tester rode on some 21-inch AMG forged cross-spoke black wheels with a silver lip, a stellar-looking option that’s been available for several years on AMG products and costs $3,300.

Mercedes sent us an example equipped with the $2,850 AMG Aerodynamics Package, which includes a more pronounced front splitter, deeper diffuser, and a fixed gloss black rear spoiler that re

places the standard pop-up one. That spoiler adds 66 pounds of downforce, but it ruins the AMG GT 4-Door’s stealthy appearance. If you don’t care about attracting attention, Mercedes offers some excellent colors that draw more stares than our tester’s $1,750 Manufaktur Moonlight White metallic paint. Some of our favorite Manufaktur options include: Patagonia Red metallic ($1,750), Starling Blue Magno matte ($3,250), Signature Sunburst Yellow ($6,500), Signature China Blue ($6,500), Signature Olive metallic ($6,500), and Signature Rubellite Red metallic ($6,500).

Interior & On-Board Technology: Slightly Old, But Better

We’ve recently been particularly critical of Mercedes interiors, which forgo buttons and physical controls for giant touchscreens. Thankfully, the AMG GT 4-Door hasn’t been fully updated in a few years, meaning its interior is slightly out-of-date. We do not mean that in a bad way. This car represents what could be the peak of Mercedes interiors; it has great technology, but isn’t completely overwhelming, and you don’t need a doctorate to figure out the controls. And unlike some other Mercedes cars we’ve driven recently, there’s nothing cheap in this interior. The fit and finish feels top-notch, and there are many ways to customize how the cabin looks.

There are 14 different color options for the interior, including our tester’s Saddle Brown/Black Style Exclusive Nappa leather, which adds $3,650 to the price. We especially love that there are five no-cost Nappa leather options, and several that also change the color of the steering wheel. Depending on the interior color, you can have a black, blue, brown, red, grey, beige, or even white steering wheel, though we’d hesitate on that last one purely from the perspective of keeping it clean. These interior colors can be paired with Black Piano Lacquer, Anthracite open-pore wood, and Natural Grain Grey Ash wood for no cost, or AMG Carbon Fiber trim (matte or gloss) for $2,850.

This is a range-topping Mercedes product, meaning you can expect a ton of standard features. Heated and ventilated front seats are standard, though active multi-contour massage seats are optional. Other standard features include:

• 64-color ambient lighting
• Heated steering wheel
• Rear window sunshade
• Power tilt/slide sunroof
• Microfiber headliner
• 360-degree surround-view camera

Infotainment: Let’s Go Back

As we mentioned earlier, the infotainment in this car is slightly older, but there have been some updates to it. The steering wheel is a newer Mercedes unit with twin horizontal spokes, and though it’s more modern than some of the other controls, it’s frankly the worst part of the interior. We loved the outgoing steering wheel with knurled volume knobs and metallic buttons, compared to this gloss black disaster that is more finicky and absorbs fingerprints. Thankfully, the 12.3-inch infotainment can be controlled via touch, by voice command, or by swiping on a touchpad mounted on the center console. Built-in redundancy has been removed in recent Mercedes models, but we appreciate that it remains here.

Practicality: What Happened Here?

The AMG GT 4-Door is far more practical than its two-door counterpart, but it makes several concessions compared to an E-Class. The cupholders, for instance, live behind a tiny sliding door that closes any time you remove your beverage to take a drink. And you’re out of luck if you have any other loose items to store, because the only other storage lives in the armrest and door pockets. The center console also contains little screens that control elements of the car (such as drive mode) and specific details like the suspension stiffness. We like that these controls aren’t buried deep in a touchscreen menu, and they can also be changed quickly using the AMG Drive Unit controllers on the steering wheel.

As for the back seats, legroom is decent due to the GT’s long wheelbase, but headroom is lackluster because of the slopping roofline. Other versions of the GT 4-Door can be equipped with a three-seat bench, meaning you can carry up to five people. However, the E Performance is only available as a four seater, with or without a $3,350 Executive Rear Seat Package that adds a business center console with heated/cooled cupholders. The upgraded seat is luxurious, but at the expense of practicality. With it, you can only fold the rear seats 40-40, leaving the middle 20 portion up. There is also less trunk space in the E Performance because there’s a noticeable box under the floor where Mercedes mounted the battery, reducing capacity behind the rear seats from 16.1 in the non-hybrid to 11.8 cubic feet here.

Performance: Peak Of Hybrid Performance

Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance is the flagship version of the GT 4-Door, equipped with AMG’s P3 Hybrid system. It pairs a familiar 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with an electric motor and 6.1 kWh battery, combining to shell out 831 hp and 1,032 lb-ft. Aside from a few performance EVs like the Lucid Air Sapphire, Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, and Tesla Model S Plaid, nothing else with four doors and a gasoline engine can touch it.

Even the 2025 BMW M5 with its performance PHEV system falls short by over 100 hp and nearly 300 lb-ft. The Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid gets closest with 771 hp and 737 lb-ft of torque, but even it can’t match the E Performance.

Performance Impressions

Mercedes claims this car can sprint to 60 mph in a ridiculous 2.8 seconds. In reality, the acceleration is even more bewildering. We recorded the sprint in just 2.68 seconds, making this the quickest vehicle we reviewed in 2024 (beating a McLaren 750S and Corvette E-Ray). The E Performance launches like an EV, but you get the sound and fury of a gasoline V8. There is zero drama off the line from the AMG-tuned AWD system, meaning you get a perfect launch every time. The electric assist makes it feel like there is no break in the power delivery, giving the AMG GT head-hurting acceleration.

AMG enthusiasts gave Mercedes a lot of flack for downsizing the C63 S E Performance from a V8 to a four-cylinder with a PHEV system. While that car is quick, it lacks the bark you expect from an AMG product. With the GT 63 E Performance, we learned that a performance PHEV is actually a wonderful idea, so long as it still sounds like a proper sports car. Though the GT 63 sounds much better than its C63 counterpart, it’s not perfect. Mercedes plays a weird humming noise whenever the car runs on electric power, then quickly cuts it whenever the engine kicks on. Unfortunately, the fake sound doesn’t stop, it’s just replaced by a synthetic rumble that enhances the V8 exhaust. It’s likely there because the GT’s cabin is so insulated and wouldn’t let in enough noise, but drivers with keen ears will be able to hear that they are being tricked.

Ride and Handling

The AMG GT 4-Door was among our favorite handling sedans on the market, and the E Performance does little to change that. It’s more aggressive than an Audi RS7 or BMW M5 with sharper steering, stiffer suspension, and more manic handling. This can be good or bad, depending on what you want from a car. Drivers who crave outright performance should pick the AMG, but the firm ride and roaring tire noise may turn off buyers who crave a fast but comfortable commuter. The AMG Ride Control+ suspension with adaptive damping does a nice job keeping occupants comfortable on smooth roads, but it bounces around like a trampoline on torn pavement. Be sure to take a test drive on a rough road before you buy.

It’s very difficult (if not impossible) to push this car beyond the limits of grip without exceeding the posted speed limit. Unlike other versions of the AMG GT 4-Door, the E Performance doesn’t have a dedicated RWD Drift Mode, but it’s easy to make the rear end rotate under throttle mid-corner. Rear-axle steering comes standard, and it’s less noticeable and far better calibrated than we’ve experienced from AMG’s EVs.

Fuel Economy/Range and Battery Info

The E Performance might be a plug-in hybrid, but we can’t imagine a scenario where you would ever want to plug it in. The EPA only rates the car for a single mile of electric range, though our real-world experience shows it will likely go about five or six miles, which still isn’t great. For comparison, an M5 with its 14.8 kWh battery goes 27 miles. It may have useless electric range, but there’s a benefit to this type of PHEV; it charges remarkably quickly. If you put the car into Race Mode and drive spiritedly, you can replenish the battery from empty in just a few minutes. Mercedes designed the system to charge and discharge quickly, not for maximum efficiency.

The EPA rates the AMG GT 63 S E Performance at 18 mpg combined when driving on the V8, and an only slightly better 25 MPGe on electric power. The BMW M5 is the closest competitor, and it only manages 14 mpg on gasoline but a far more impressive 50 MPGe on electric propulsion.

Verdict & Pricing: Wait For The Powertrain

The 2025 AMG GT 63 E Performance 4-Door Coupe starts at a whopping $194,900, not including a $1,150 destination fee. With various options – such as Manufaktur paint, bigger wheels, the executive rear seat, and aero package – our tester rang in at $223,670. It is cheaper than the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid ($226,500), but it’s far more expensive than the M5 ($119,500). If you’re willing to live with “only” 630 hp, the non-hybrid GT 63 4-Door costs $153,350, a $41,550 savings to lose half-a-second from your 0-60 time. To put it another way, you have to spend $8,300 per tenth-of-a-second. That math just doesn’t feel worth it to us.

Buying the E Performance today reminds us of what it felt like to buy a V12 AMG in the past. It required a huge premium over the V8, but it was worth it for the top customers who wanted to eat, sleep, and breathe the Mercedes tagline: the best or nothing. The PHEV system may not have the same cache as a V12 on paper, but the F1-derrived pedigree and insane levels of performance may change a few minds. And unlike the V12 AMG cars of yesteryear, the E Performance cars (from what we’ve seen so far) actually deliver better performance along with their higher price tags.

We genuinely loved driving the AMG GT 4-Door with this powertrain, but we could live without the car’s ergonomic shortfalls and price premium for being a standalone AMG model. Here’s our advice: if you want to experience this powertrain, wait for Mercedes to stick it in the E-Class. It will be cheaper, more practical, and likely just as quick. Oh, and let’s hope Mercedes sells it as a wagon.