Brad Pitt, Jacob Elordi, & More Celebs Saw Mercedes-AMG Unveil GT EV Coupe At LA Launch

With 1,153 horsepower and 0-to-60 mph in 2.0 seconds flat, the Tristar’s latest is a half hypercar, half luxury marvel.

On a mid-May night at an ultra-swanky, VIP-studded affair on Los Angeles’ stunning new 6th Street Bridge, Mercedes-AMG pulled back the silk sheets on one of the most revolutionary cars in its long history of disruption. The crew from Affalterbach shut down the entire bridge to build an American Autobahn and unchain their beast, surrounding their new purebred with a crowd of beautiful people all styled out as if they were parading a Hollywood Hills soirée. Diplo, Jacob Elordi, Toto Wolf, Kevin Hart, Kimi Antonelli, Kourtney Kardashian, Odell Beckham Jr., and Finneas milled about excitedly for the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe to make its dramatic debut. And oh boy, what a doozy.

With rear tires squealing and smoke billowing from burnt rubber, none other than Brad Pitt and Mercedes-AMG F1 driver George Russell shot out from under the grandstand across the structure’s glorious architecture, racing each other down the ad-hoc Autobahn for all to stare in awe. Four doors, four seats, three electric motors, 1,153 horsepower, and a blistering 0-to-60 mph time of 2.0 seconds flat. The sedan rocketed across the blazing Los Angeles skyline as if it were the cause of the local fires.

For any manufacturer, every single model they roll out is important. But for a marque as innovative and groundbreaking as Mercedes, there are vehicles unleashed a couple times a decade that entirely change the landscape of the automotive world. Meteors that strike the Earth and raze the playing fields, killing all dinosaurs. This disruption is rarely reflected in volume sales, but rather in imagination and innovation.

For Mercedes in the 21st-century, think cars like the CLS, the first four-door coupe that literally created the segment. The breathtaking AMG SLS—the gullwing-doored successor to the iconic 300 SL of the 1950s. Of course there’s every single new generation of S-Class that ushers in new technology that then filters out throughout the industry—debuting game changing features like seatbelts, ABS brakes, airbags and Adaptive Cruise Control. Most recently there was the totally redesigned G-Wagen that, while looking much like its Lego-shaped W463 predecessor, was an entirely new vehicle for third wives from Beverly Hills to destroy berms at Erewhon. 

Make no mistake, the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe is exactly that car in that revolutionary bloodline. It is somehow a hair-singeing, four-digit horsepower hypercar adept at giving drivers unintentional facelifts. It is a four-door luxury sedan capable of carrying four adults comfortably in the apotheosis of AMG bespoke luxury. And it is a fully electric vehicle with such mindbending technological customizations that it will take owners weeks to figure out how to totally dial it in.

Once the black rubber smoke cleared, Russell came out to say that this was the fastest production car he’d ever driven. As soon as he stepped off the dais, AMG kept the festivities going by bringing out Blink-182 to regale the crowd. Let’s just say Mercedes knows how to throw a global debut. And it is noteworthy they selected Los Angeles for the reveal—not Beijing or Stuttgart or Tokyo—as a nod to the City of Angel’s peerless car culture. 

The engineering foundation of the GT 4-Door Coupe a genuine world first, built on AMG’s entirely new AMG.EA high-performance electric architecture. It is the first series-production electric vehicle to use axial flux motors—previously only the domain of aerospace and motorsport applications. Three power the car: two on the rear axle, one up front, each extraordinarily thin relative to their output (3.5 inches wide at front, 3.2 inches rear). Together, the trio produce a peak system output of 1,153 hp and 1,475 pound-feet of torque in the top-spec AMG GT 63 (with the GT 55 delivering a still-formidable 805 hp). Execs tell Maxim the underlying architecture is designed to support outputs exceeding 1,300 hp as the platform evolves.

Of course all that power means nothing without a battery that can sustain it, and AMG built one from scratch. The high-voltage battery uses newly developed cylindrical cells housed in laser-welded aluminum casings that are lighter and more thermally conductive than conventional steel. The ingenious way they can lay the pack along the floor even allowed designers to drop the silhouette by 1.5-inches. The result is a battery that delivers power consistently and repeatedly, without the thermal degradation that limits so many performance EVs in sustained driving. AMG proved the point last year when its CONCEPT AMG GT XX covered 24,901 miles in seven days and thirteen hours at Nardò, setting 25 long-distance records in the process.

Charging performance is equally audacious. With compatible infrastructure, the GT 4-Door Coupe draws over 800 amps for a peak charging capacity exceeding 600 kW. In practice: approximately 286 miles of range added in just ten minutes. These are numbers are mind boggling, and effectively neutralize any range anxiety argument.

To further squash doubts of internal combustion engine lovers, AMG built a concession with its new AMGFORCE Sport+ drive program. It uses a patent-pending sound system built from over 1,600 individual audio samples—sourced from the AMG GT R and mixed dynamically in real time—to recreate the full sensory vocabulary of a V8 sports car. Gear changes trigger actual traction interruptions, the exhaust burbles on lift-off, the engine note swells with revs, adapts to throttle input, and fills the cabin with neck-tingling bass. 

“This GT 4-Door Coupe redefines AMG electric performance with unprecedented innovation, requiring a specific, unique design—especially a bold, rocket-like rear—marking a milestone for the brand,” Bastian Baudy, Mercedes-Benz’s new Chief Design Officer, told Maxim earlier in the day. Baudy sees the trio of round taillights also as digital tailpipes, a very unique styling element for any Mercedes that furthers the rocket metaphor.

The technological marvels of AMG’s latest could—and did—fill a 20-page press release, so until we drive it we’ll leave it at that. Suffice to say when Mercedes crafts a vehicle that changes the conversation, the know how to throw a party to start it. 

Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher’s travel, spirits and automotive adventures on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.