Electric Mercedes SLS AMG Coupe lights up Nordschleife

The unmissable bright greeny-yellow Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Coupe Electric Drive – to give it its full title – has brightened up the world of luxury electric motoring with its 7:56.234 minute new-record-lap of the legendary Nordschleife testing track, it has been confirmed. 

The electric – batteries and motors – AMG super sports car also takes the crown for being the first electrically-powered series production car to duck under the desireable 8 minute marker, further throwing the gauntlet down to other makers. Its 0-62mph sprint of 3.9 seconds and limited 155mph top whack are supercar-quick indeed.

The gorgeous gull-wing AMG – the distinctly tuning arm of Mercedes – uses all of AMG’s considerable go-faster know-how to attack the famous German racetrack with AMG Torque Dynamics and all-wheel drive, and a high-voltage battery that learns from Formula 1 KERS hybrid technology. It is widely agreed that Merc AMG make the best engines in F1 and it’s always good to exploit what you do best. This AMG makes extensive use of carbon too.

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Coupe Electric Drive’s performance stats read like a supercar’s, expect the CO2 is much lower than a snarling petrol-turbo real supercar. In fact it’s 0g/km of CO2. That’s very low!

Here are the rest: Power: 751bhp, torque 1,000Nm (!), 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds, top speed 155mph, range 155miles, battery energy content 60 kWh, battery voltage 400 volts. That amount of electro-grunt could power a small village!

This lightning-quick AMG SLS Coupe is further expensive proof that electric cars are getting more incredible nearly every week, but they still need to be more credible in the real world of super-efficient little petrol engines and superminis, for electric zero-emissions motoring to become relevant to the average driver in the UK. Even if we would all love this stunning AMG; charging point required or not!

By Dan Anslow