2025 Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance First Drive: Overkill through complexity

MALIBU, Calif – The Mercedes C 63 AMG has always been about delightful overkill. The sort of thing that results from a couple people sitting around a workshop after hours and wondering, “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we stuffed that into that?” In the beginning, said stuffing was the 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8 from the grandest AMGs into the then-humblest, the C-Class compact sedan. While overkill was achieved back then by excessively large displacement, today’s new 2025 Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance does so with another Mercedes staple: gratuitous complexity.

Today’s mightiest C utilizes a kitchen sink approach to excess. Things start with a 2.0-liter inline-four, which doesn’t sound like a sad trombone, but it’s hard not to hear one anyway. It’s also hard not to think that cylinder count will be underwhelming to some, possibly many, regardless of all the other stuff that we’re about to describe. That includes an enormous conch shell of a turbocharger featuring Mercedes F1-derived electrification – an electric motor spools up the turbo before exhaust gases can take over, thereby eliminating turbo lag. To the same end, it also keeps the turbo spooled up when you momentarily lift off the throttle. The overall result is 469 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque sent through an AMG nine-speed multi-clutch transmission, making this 2.0-liter the most powerful production four-cylinder in the world. It also has 18 hp more than that old 6.2-liter. Like it, however, today’s “M139I” 2.0-liter is still hand-built using AMG’s “one man, one engine” method. Our test car’s was built by a Maxímílían Bee£. That’s probably not his last name, so let’s assume his engine-building abilities are superior to his penmanship.

Things don’t end with Herr Bee£, however. As the “S E Performance” bit in its appropriately complex name implies, this is also a plug-in hybrid. But not that kind of plug-in hybrid. You don’t even have to plug it in as the engine keeps it topped up under most circumstances. EPA-estimated range is 3 miles. It’s therefore best to think of it more like a regular hybrid with an absurdly large, 6.1-kilowatt-hour battery pack that provides a commensurately absurd amount of power to a motor that’s packaged within an electric drive unit at the rear axle along with its own two-speed transmission and an electronic limited-slip differential. The motor’s maximum output  of 201 hp and 236 pound-feet of torque, or basically the same as a standard Volkswagen ID.4, is only sent to the rear axle through that two-speed gearbox (the maximum output last only 10 seconds, thereafter it’s 94 hp, we didn’t notice a difference during our drive). AMG development engineer Damian Hampen says the second gear engages at 81 to 83 mph to ensure that maximum electric boost is still available at higher, rarely-in-America speeds.

Although the electric motor only sends power to the rear axle, the big Bee£ 2.0-liter still sends its tidings to both axles through an AMG-ified 4Matic+ AWD system that does feature a Drift mode for those times you’ve grown tired of the front axle’s input. Total system output is 671 hp and 752 lb-ft of torque. As previously stated, overkill performance via gratuitous complexity. The estimated 0-60-mph time is 3.3 seconds.

The complexity extends to the drive modes, of which there are eight that we won’t bore you in describing, especially as you can change individual elements of each on the fly using the clever little control hub on the left side of the steering wheel (pictured above right). This meant we could drive in Sport, Sport+ or Race, but ease up the suspension firmness on bumpier portions of road. We ignored the more electric-forward drive modes as we exclusively were driving on fantastic mountain roads and doing so seemed like a waste. Also, again, 3 miles of range.

With the car in those spiciest drive modes, there’s nothing overtly hybrid-y about the power delivery. It just goes. There is indeed no lag, be it from the electric motor or turbocharger, just a whole bunch of slam-you-in-your-seat torque. The exhaust provides some snap, crackle and pop on overrun between shifts, which is basically the only bit of exciting noise from this powertrain, but then Mercedes “enhances” even that with the back seat speakers.

Plenty was done to the chassis. Not only is the car wider as has been typical, but the wheelbase is 0.4 inches longer than a standard C-Class, which is basically unheard of. Hampen says that this quirk was necessary to accommodate the engineers’ desired tires: 265 front and 275 rear. He also says doing so wasn’t that big of a deal: AMG always had its own body-in-white it could modify in such ways, and production wasn’t impacted because the factory is already set up for different cars going down the same line.

The adaptive “AMG Ride Control” suspension is broadly the same as what you’d find in the C 43, and like that car, it’s hard to think of many places on this continent where the ride won’t be uncomfortably firm and jostling. Even on the generally smooth pavement around Malibu, it got old. It was also necessary to switch the suspension to Comfort and Sport at times to better greet big mid-corner bumps. No denying its road holding, however, as the C 63 effectively scalpeled its way through extremely tight and technical mountain roads. To that end, it has standard rear-wheel steering, but its modest 2.5 degrees of articulation does not draw attention to itself (the EQS goes up to 10 and feels like a Disney ride). The steering is feelsome, too, thanks in part to Mercedes not dialing in a whole bunch of effort just for the sake of perceived sportiness. It feels friction-free and natural. Good job.

Less so the brakes. They are carbon ceramic as standard, but it’s doubtful that’s why the pedal action was inconsistent. There would usually be X amount of initial travel before a firmer foot was needed to increase stopping – in other words, totally normal. In a few corners, though, that initial travel would disappear and we were immediately faced with the firmer response. There didn’t seem to be a correlation with the type of braking or a particular situation and it wasn’t constant. There is regenerative braking present, including a one-pedal drive mode that definitely wasn’t active during our test drive, so that sure seems like the culprit, if by fault or by a quirk in design.

Visually, the 3-inch-wider fenders wrapping those uniquely larger wheels are the easiest telltale this isn’t a C 43. There’s also a unique front fascia that elongates the car by 2 inches, an aerodynamic hood vent, special red badges that’ll be the tell for all future E Performance models, and the first application of the Affalterbach badge to an AMG’s exterior (it replaces the usual Mercedes hood crest). The interior gets unique AMG and hybrid displays, an AMG Performance steering wheel that’s a delight to hold, and the option for AMG Performance seats. We found the standard “Sport” seats to be plenty grippy and abundantly adjustable.

All told, the C 63 S E Performance is a different sort of monster C-Class that caters more to the geekier of us who like to regale their friends, prompted or not, about all the whiz-bang geekery that went into their car. Describing old C 63s was more “V8, F- yeah!” followed by a high-five and a burnout. Maybe all that doesn’t matter. Maybe the world needs to move beyond V8s, and the new C 63 is indeed heaps more powerful than all AMG Cs that have come before, but there’s also something less loveable about this one. Complexity just isn’t as fun as largesse.