Here's a number that should embarrass Affalterbach: 213,457 to 145,000. That's how BMW M's global sales beat Mercedes-AMG's last year — a 68,000-car gap, and BMW M's 14th consecutive year of growth. The house of Affalterbach has watched its rival cross 200,000 units annually and decided enough is enough. Motor1.com just reported that AMG CEO Michael Schiebe has committed to a counterattack: 27 new models over the next 36 months, plus a radical simplification of the engine lineup.
If you love performance cars, this is the most interesting thing happening in the industry right now. Not the EVs. Not the software-defined vehicles. The fact that Mercedes — of all companies, the one most aggressively pushing electrification on the luxury side — is publicly betting that combustion still has a decade of life.
The Plan, In One Paragraph
Schiebe, speaking on Bloomberg's Hot Pursuit! podcast, said AMG will slim its engine portfolio from ten variants down to four, with an upgraded inline-six and a new flat-plane-crank V8 as the backbone. Around those two engines, AMG will launch: a fully electric GT 4-Door Coupe (already here), the new GLE 63 and GLS 63 with the V8, a hardcore V8-powered CLE "Mythos" plus a less extreme CLE 63, a G63 Convertible, a new GT Black Series, a six-cylinder C53, and an electric SUV on the GT 4-Door platform. The target: 200,000 units per year by the end of the decade.
Why The Engine Count Matters
Most readers will skim past this detail. Don't. Cutting from 10 engines to 4 is the most honest engineering move Schiebe has made since taking over. Today's AMG parts catalog is a graveyard of expensive dead-ends: the old M178 V8, the M176, the M177, the M276 turbo-six in two states of tune, the M264 four-cylinder, the hand-built M159, the M177s in 612 and 630 spec, and so on. Each one needed its own supply chain, its own emissions certification, its own service network. The total cost of ownership was buried in your dealer's hourly rate.
BMW M does the opposite. The S58 inline-six and S63 V8 cover almost every product. The M division is profitable because the parts bin is small. AMG finally noticed.
What's Actually Coming — And When
- 2026: New flat-plane V8 (already confirmed for the GT 4-Door), GLE 63, GLS 63, electric GT 4-Door in showrooms
- 2027: CLE Mythos, CLE 63, G63 Convertible, C53 inline-six
- 2028: New GT Black Series (replacement for the current GT), electric SUV on AMG.EA platform
- 2028+: Next-gen E-Class (debuts as an EV), E63 wagon rumored to take on M5 Touring and RS6 Avant
Notice what's missing: no V8 C-Class, and no E63 announcement yet. Both are enormous holes in the lineup. The C63 situation is the most damaging — Mercedes handed that car the 4-cylinder hybrid and watched BMW M's M3 CS-L run away with the segment. The fact that a V8 C-Class isn't on the roadmap is either a strategic choice or a serious oversight. Probably both.
The Real Headline: Combustion Is Off The Death Clock
European regulators have been telegraphing the end of the big-displacement engine for years. AMG just made the most credible counterargument possible: a multi-billion-dollar product commitment around a new V8 and a new inline-six, both of which Schiebe says will "survive well into the 2030s."
That's not nostalgia. That's a business model. The math: a 4-cylinder C63 hybrid costs roughly the same to develop as a new V8, but it sells for less and alienates the buyer who actually wanted a C63. The rational move is to stop making cars your customers don't want, even if the marketing department insists the future is electric.
"An unprecedented product blitz will introduce more than 27 vehicles over the next three years." — Michael Schiebe, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, on Bloomberg's Hot Pursuit! podcast
What BMW M Should Be Worried About
M division has had the performance-car conversation to itself for five years. The M3 CS, M5 CS, XM Label Red — all excellent, none of them seriously challenged. If AMG executes this plan, the next M3 and M5 will launch into a market that has 27 new competitors, a fresh V8, and an entire performance division that's been publicly humbled. That's the kind of motivation that produces interesting cars.
The next 36 months are going to be the most competitive period in the performance-car market since the late 2000s. If you're shopping for a fast sedan, fast wagon, or fast SUV in 2027-2028, do not buy the first one you test drive. Wait for the AMG wave.
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Source: Motor1.com — AMG's Biggest Product Push Yet: Over 27 New Models In 36 Months (Jun 16 2026). Republished on AutoWheeler with added analysis and opinion.