Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe first drive: Where tech and fun collide

Mercedes-Benz provided flights from San Francisco to Malaga, Spain, and accommodation so Ars could drive the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. The night before I drove the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, I complained to a group of journalists that automakers d

Mercedes-Benz provided flights from San Francisco to Malaga, Spain, and accommodation so Ars could drive the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. The night before I drove the AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, I complained to a group of journalists that automakers don't want to take chances and just build fun, weird cars anymore.

About 12 hours later, Mercedes made me eat my words. Outside of all the bombastic extravaganza of the Los Angeles launch, the first true AMG powered exclusively by batteries is a technological triumph that's as comfortable on the track as it is on the street. And it's really very good on the track.

Triforce One of the fundamental problems with EVs is weight. Batteries are heavy, and the old rule about an object in motion tending to stay in motion makes the notion of nimble cornering a difficult engineering problem. Mercedes loves an engineering problem, and after two days behind the wheel of the AMG GT EV, the company has mostly reduced the battery-weight tax that mires EV performance.

On the road and on the track, the vehicle is firmly planted to the roadway. Mercedes says various technologies make this possible. In addition to decades of producing high-performance vehicles, the automaker's AMG.EA sports-car architecture does a lot of heavy lifting here, constantly adjusting power delivery from the three motors while guiding the Active Ride Control suspension, steering—including up to six degrees at the rear axle—and active aerodynamics to deliver the performance AMG customers have come to expect from a vehicle with the Affalterbach badge on the hood.

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