While it appears Mercedes is heading towards an all-electric future, it's confirmed that the twin-turbo 4.0 litre engine will be sticking around for at least another decade.
With some of AGM's US based V8s having quality issues, it's safe to say the company are in a bit of a tight spot.
But the big boss of Mercedes' performance division, Philipp Scheimer, does believe that the twin-turbo 4.0 litre still has plenty of life, even with parent company, Daimler, moving away from internal combustion engines in preparation for the inevitable era of the EV.
"I think there will be a future, yes. I think for the next ten years we will see V8s, for sure. We have a lot of customers who love their cars and I still think that we will see those people buying the cars for a long time. We have really a very high demand all over the world," Scheimer said to Road and Track in response to questioning about the fate of the V8.
And though the ship for a next-generation V8 engine has sailed due to the electrification take over, engineers are still finding ways to update the existing powertrain.
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The combustion engine is in fact being updated to become a central feature in a plug-in hybrid setup, as we can see in the new GT 63 S E-Performance.
The internal combustion engine works with an electric motor in the rear that develops a total output of 620 kW and 1,400 Nm which effectively makes it the most powerful AMG so far.
So while the V8 is here to stay (at least for the time being), we can assume that only the top-tier AMGs will continue to have it. In fact, the next-generation C63 will lose the 4.0 litre unit and gain a heavily electrifies four-cylinder adaptation from the AGM 45 models.
But keep in mind that Mercedes has expressed interest in going completely electric within the next 10 years "where market conditions allow."
AMG has already jumped on the EV bandwagon with the EQS 53, and the smaller EQE 53 is probably not too far behind seeing as we've already seen that prototypes are undergoing testing.