Automotive News Daily Drive May 24, 2026

May 24, 2026 | Bonus Episode: Mercedes-AMG’s electric performance gamble

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

15:03

Term

instant torque

Torque is the force that helps the car pull forward. EVs can often give that force right away, which is why they feel quick when you step on the accelerator.

Term

V8 simulation

“V8 simulation” means the car plays made-up engine sounds to mimic what a V8 would sound like. It’s meant to make the electric car feel more like a gas performance car.

Concept

sound files

The segment describes using many “sound files” to create believable engine-like audio for an EV. That implies the system maps different driving conditions (like acceleration and load) to different recorded or synthesized sounds so the car’s audio changes in a realistic way.

Car

Hyundai Ioniq 5N

The Hyundai Ioniq 5N is a sporty electric Hyundai. It uses fake engine-like sounds to make the driving feel more like a regular gas performance car.

Concept

EV sound/feel simulation to mimic a V8

The car is trying to copy the experience of a V8. It does that by playing the right sounds and adding vibrations so the EV feels more like a traditional engine car.

Term

Sport Plus Drive

Sport Plus Drive is a driving mode you can select. In this case, it changes what you hear and feel in the cabin to make the EV experience more like a louder V8.

Term

V8 audio file

A “V8 audio file” is basically the sound the car plays to imitate a V8 engine. The point is that when you accelerate or shift, you hear V8-style noises even though it’s an EV.

Brand

Scout

Scout is mentioned as another company trying to make EVs more engaging. They’re working on sound design so the cabin experience feels more connected to what you’re doing.

Car

X7 Mercedesbenz X

The X7 is a large luxury SUV made by BMW. It’s designed to carry people comfortably and feel upscale, but repairs and maintenance can be pricey compared with simpler cars. That’s why it might be brought up when people talk about expensive ownership surprises.

LIVE

Fraud is no longer just a risk for auto dealers, it has become part of everyday operations.

Experian Automotive's Fraud Protect solution helps you catch income, identity, and trade

in fraud in real time, without slowing down the sale.

Stop fraud.

Keep deals moving.

Experian Automotive's Fraud Protect.

Hey, thanks for joining me for this bonus episode of Daily Drive.

I'm executive producer Jake Nier in Detroit.

On Wednesday's show, I talked with our own Jack Wallsworth about Mercedes-AMG's first

all-electric performance car, the GT four-door coupe.

Jack was on site for the reveal in Los Angeles, and we talked about how this vehicle fits

into Mercedes electrification strategy, and how AMG is trying to win over customers who've

spent decades loving loud V8 engines.

Today we're sharing the rest of that conversation.

Jack walks me through the elaborate sound engineering that went into the vehicle, and

describes the reveal event itself, which took over a downtown LA bridge, and featured A-list

celebrities and a Blink-182 concert.

Here's that conversation.

Not to editorialize too much, but what excites me in some ways about this is that this seems

like maybe where automakers should have started in the first place with electrification in

the luxury space in ways that can really compete against engines, against gasoline-powered

engines, that raw horsepower, the raw torque, the instant torque, as opposed to where EVs

really captured the public's attention was with the trucks and places where people were

really forced to make compromises.

It seems like what AMG is trying here is to say, you don't have to make any compromises

with a vehicle like this.

Is that fair?

Yeah, that's a great point, and something that was talked throughout the day leading

up to the reveal from various Mercedes executives is this is their electric V8, which obviously

electric V8s do not exist.

That's not a real thing, but I think the point that they were trying to get across is if you

were a super powerful V8, and how you would come with that conclusion is Mercedes was

really big on adding sounds in and outside of the vehicle to simulate as if you were

driving a V8-powered car.

But yeah, this is a good use case because the AMG buyer really cares about performance,

handling, speed, things like that, and this is a good way to do that.

To your point, it's not like an EV pickup, you don't have to worry about the payload

or the range or anything like that.

You're just focused on speed, performance, and how quickly you can get from point A to

point B. But yeah, it's a super interesting use case, and like I said, Mercedes AMG is

going to use this platform for additional vehicles.

They haven't provided timing on that, but I wouldn't expect us to wait too much longer

to see additional models to join, and possibly we'll see this family continue to grow down

the road.

You mentioned the V8 simulation here with the sound files.

They needed a lot of sound files to make this work.

Now, first of all, let's back up and say, talk about what V8 simulation means.

This isn't the first performance EV to use that idea.

I'm thinking of the Hyundai Ioniq 5N has a similar simulation that makes you feel like

you're in a manual gas car.

Talk about what they're trying to do here with this AMG.

Right, yeah.

I haven't driven the car yet, but having watched it yesterday, you kind of get a sense of what

the experience is like.

But basically, if you put it in a certain mode, Sport Plus Drive, I believe is what it's

called, it turns the sensor experience from an EV to a V8 engine type atmosphere.

And basically, for acceleration, gear changes, or even an exosperable, which would again

exist with an EV, you would hear sounds that are derived from a V8 audio file, basically.

It would be like driving a V8 without driving a V8, if that makes sense.

So you would still hear the noises that you'd expect to hear.

You'd still feel some vibrations.

You would still have that V8 experience.

And like you said, Mercedes isn't the first automaker to do this.

I'm not overly familiar with other noise implementations, but this one does seem pretty substantial.

Mercedes said they used over 1,600 sound files to really have a noise for each driving situation.

And they used the AMGTR as the basis point for all of those sounds, which that vehicle

also had a V8.

So yeah, it's really interesting.

I feel like we're in the early days of the sound experience in a way.

Some of the other brands I cover, like Scout, has talked about this with their upcoming vehicles,

how they are trying to really implement good noises, I guess, as much as they can, because

they really want to create an experience for the occupant, for the passenger, that is something

they connect to.

But with this Mercedes thing, I mean, it's one of those things that I think, initially,

if you're in the car, it'll probably be like, wait, what?

It's kind of like throwing off your senses.

But the Mercedes execs talked about how after 30 minutes, 45 minutes an hour of driving this

vehicle, you kind of adjust and then you don't really think about it anymore.

And that was some feedback that we heard from other people that have driven the car as well.

So definitely something I'm looking forward to checking out.

But again, I think we're kind of in the early days of this and I'm excited to see how the sound

of EVs evolves going forward.

As an audio guy, I've got to wonder what that process was like.

I would love to geek out with someone at AMG about how they did that at some point.

Yeah, they give us a little bit of information on the development.

It sounds like it was quite the process, but yeah, it's super interesting.

I mean, it's just one of those things that we probably didn't think about as much in the

pre-EV era now.

I think it'll become more like a regular topic.

So looking forward to covering that more in the future.

Fraud is no longer just a risk for auto dealers.

It has become part of everyday operations.

According to Experian Automotive, nearly 9 out of 10 dealers say fraud is a top concern.

And 70% say it's on the rise.

We're talking about real deals slipping through, costing dealerships 10 even $20,000 per incident.

And it's not just one type of fraud.

You've got forged income documents, fabricated salaries, synthetic identities, even trade-in

scams.

The worst part, catching fraud often slows everything down, adding friction to deals

and frustrating legitimate customers.

That's where Experian Automotive's Fraud Protect solution comes in.

It's designed specifically for dealers, helping you quickly detect income, identity,

and trade in ownership before it hits your bottom line.

No guesswork.

No unnecessary delays.

Just faster, more consistent verification so you can protect your profits while keeping

the buying experience smooth.

Because the goal isn't just to stop fraud, it's to keep good deals moving.

Experian Automotive's Fraud Protect, no more, risk less, sell smarter.

Chapin also explains why he doesn't buy the idea that there will be a huge number of commoditized

autonomous vehicle providers, and where he sees neuro taking the biggest risks in making

RoboTaxi's truly ubiquitous.

Join us for Shift, available this Sunday wherever you get your podcasts.

I've got to ask you about the event itself, because that's a story in its own, that this

was a big event when they showed this off.

Tell us about it.

Yeah, so Mercedes has really, the last year or two, really used these big single events

to unveil cars.

They've been doing events recently in China, Germany, South Korea.

So they picked LA for this car.

And I've been going to a lot of auto shows and events in my career here at Automotive News.

There's always some more unique ones than others, but this one is definitely up there.

For me, they took Sixth Avenue Bridge in downtown LA, had it shut off to traffic.

I'm not sure when they started the process.

I'm guessing it was at least a couple of days.

And basically took over Bridge, and it's the one that goes right over the LA River.

It's kind of an iconic shot of the downtown area.

And basically, Mercedes' plan was to make it the autobahn.

So obviously, we don't have the autobahn here in the U.S.

For us, gearheads, that's kind of a bummer, given you can't just go flat out.

But the point Mercedes was trying to do was they were trying to bring the autobahn stretches

in Germany where you can go flat out to the U.S. So they were bringing the autobahn here,

basically set up the event where there was food trucks and stuff before.

There was, and bleachers were needed, other people would watch the reveal.

And then the car would, for cars, they had a few of them would kind of go

screen them up and down the closed section of the bridge.

So there's a lot of burning rubber, a lot of smoke, there was flames, all that good stuff.

And I think the point Mercedes was trying to get across was this is a special car,

needs a special event.

Mercedes said about 30% of all AMG vehicles globally are sold in the U.S.

So the U.S. is a big market.

LA in California is huge for EVs.

Mercedes talked about how car culture in LA is super notable, it's a huge car market.

I think that's kind of why they wanted to have it here.

And it did feel like a cool, authentic California event.

There were some celebrities, Brad Pitt was there.

The Mercedes AMG F1 drivers were both there. George Russell talked briefly.

He drove the car during development and drove some earlier versions of the car.

They had Blink 182 Play after the vehicle was shown.

So there was a concert after it.

So I didn't expect work to send me to my first Blink 182 concert, but that's how it

worked out last night.

But no, it seemed like Mercedes really wanted to make this a big reveal and a big event.

And a lot of their executives were there, a lot of execs spoke.

They all seemed super jazzed about the car.

And they seemed really excited about the future of these AMG EVs.

This model in particular, in terms of volume, will probably be pretty small.

It's not a crossover, it's not an SUV.

It's just called a 4-door coupe.

Most people probably think sedan.

But Mercedes said they've got a crossover and coupe crossover EV coming.

So I think they have a lot of hope, plans for this line of vehicles.

And I think they definitely wanted to use a big event like this to get the work out.

So yeah, I don't think I've reported a new story from a bridge before.

So that was kind of fun.

And yeah, they set a high bar for reveals going forward.

So you're making me a jealous elder millennial here, Jack.

Yes.

A big Blink 182 fan.

So that's so cool.

It makes me wonder, obviously, I don't think every automaker is willing to put

that much money into a car reveal.

But I have to think about how auto shows have sort of dwindled in recent years,

especially since COVID.

Is this a way for automakers to start capturing that energy and also avoid

auto shows where maybe attention is divided among journalists and people who are attending

and really make a huge event out of these reveals again?

Could this be a template?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, to your point, a couple of Mercedes-Benz X did kind of joke about this,

that cost them a lot of money, that they didn't give us a figure.

I can only imagine it was high.

But I mean, you had a ton of media's, undivided attention.

They also had, there were some content creators and influencers,

which obviously have a huge reach as well.

They were all there.

And it kind of like a party atmosphere for that crowd.

And I think I would be curious down the real month from now,

what the metrics were that Mercedes got from this.

But it does seem like a way to really have everyone's attention on the car,

on the execs, talking about things like that.

This one's definitely unique because they took over a public road,

and it doesn't happen a lot.

A lot of times, there might be an offsite event or there might be a media event,

but maybe it's in a studio or it's in a warehouse or it's tucked away somewhere,

not in so much like the public realm.

But this one was, I mean, I probably wouldn't be feeling so great if I lived in LA,

or maybe I'm sure some locals were probably annoyed that they had a detour,

but it definitely was interesting in that they really made it a can't miss thing.

And yeah, I mean, not every automaker is going to do this for every model,

but I think this could be a little template of sorts to really launch a car,

to have everyone's attention in this kind of unique way.

So we'll see. I mean, it does seem like we're seeing more of these one-off events where

an automaker will roll out a car or roll out something, and maybe we'll see more of these

tied around the time of auto shows. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw something like this

during like a week before an auto show or maybe during an auto show week

for media, for content creators, things like that.

So we'll see. But yeah, I mean, it definitely was an interesting event,

and I think we could see more of them going forward,

but probably not Blink-182 every time. That might have been a one-time deal. Sorry, Jakes.

Yeah, well, you know, I guess I'll have to buy a ticket like a normal

fan sometime next time they're coming around.

Jack Wallsworth covers Mercedes and other automakers for us at Automotive News.

Jack, really glad that you had a chance to check it out, and thanks for your insights.

Yep, anytime. Thanks, Jake.

That was our own Jack Wallsworth, who covers Mercedes and Volkswagen Group for us at Automotive

News. You can read Jack's full story about the Mercedes-AMG GT four-door coupe at AutoNews.com.

We're off on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday here in the U.S.

We'll be back on Tuesday with a brand new full episode of the show.

0:00

15:03

May 24, 2026 | Bonus Episode: Mercedes-AMG’s electric performance gamble

instant torque

V8 simulation

sound files

Hyundai Ioniq 5N

EV sound/feel simulation to mimic a V8

Sport Plus Drive

V8 audio file

Scout

X7 Mercedesbenz X

About this episode

Original notes