Mercedes-AMG's new electric GT 4-Door Coupe uses more than 1600 audio files to recreate the sound of the company's V8, paired with simulated nine-speed gearshifts and vibrations, the brand says. The GT55 and GT63 draw their soundtrack from the petrol V8 used in the AMG GT R.
The system is built around a drive mode called AMGFORCE Sport+, which adds manual simulated shifts through the steering wheel paddles, with the V8 sound audible both inside and outside the car. The entry-level GT53 gets its own version of the mode, reproducing a six-cylinder engine instead.
How the artificial V8 works
The audio is mixed in real time to follow what the driver does. Individual samples are broken into smaller loops and recombined to reproduce acceleration, gear changes and exhaust burbles.
Speaking at the car's launch in Spain, Mercedes-AMG product manager Oliver Ganzmann said the brief went past making a fast electric car. "For us, a performance car is about emotion, about character, about the feeling you get behind a steering wheel," he said.
Ganzmann framed the mode as a deliberate link to the brand's petrol past. "Obviously, we know what's connected to emotions when it comes to an AMG, and that's an authentic V8 experience," he said, describing AMGFORCE Sport+ as combining the V8 sound from the AMG GT R with an emulated nine-speed shift.
The shifts are theatre rather than hardware. The GT55 and GT63's rear electric motors use a single-stage transmission, not the nine-speed automatic the system imitates, so the torque interruptions and vibrations drivers feel are simulated too. Ganzmann said drivers who have owned an AMG V8 should feel at home in the mode.
Drivers can tune the cabin sound through a SoundSlider menu with Powerful, Balanced and Minimal settings, plus a scale running from Classic to Futuristic. Keeping a six-cylinder voice for the GT53 preserves a hierarchy familiar from petrol AMGs, even though all three versions of the new four-door are electric.
What AMG has not announced
The sources cover the powertrain's character rather than its numbers. Power, torque, battery capacity, charging rates and official range figures for the GT55, GT63 and GT53 have not been announced in the material available, and no range test cycle is quoted.
Pricing and market availability are likewise unconfirmed. The car's launch took place in Spain, but the sources do not state an on-sale date, a price or which countries will receive it. Buyers in markets outside those confirmed will need to wait for AMG's full specifications.
AMG joins a growing group of noisy EVs
AMG is not alone in giving electric performance cars artificial engine noise and gearshifts. Hyundai has already introduced both in its electric N range, including the Ioniq 6 N, whose N e-Shift system simulates gear changes.
That matters because the engineering problem is the same across the industry: electric motors deliver power smoothly and near-silently, which removes much of the sensory feedback that performance-car buyers have been trained to expect. Simulated sound and shifts are a way of filling that gap without giving up the instant response of an EV.
The catch is that the effect is software, not mechanical. Drivers who want the real thing will still notice the single-stage transmission underneath, but AMG is betting that the soundtrack and the simulated shifts are what most buyers actually miss.
