Mercedes-AMG rules out a V8 C63 revival, for this generation at least
Mercedes-AMG has closed the door on a V8 C63 for the current C-Class, but not permanently.
Klaus Rehkugler, Mercedes-Benz's head of product management and global training, told CarExpert that a V8-powered C63 will not return during the current C-Class generation. The reasoning is financial rather than technical: with a facelift already due and the next generation still years out, Mercedes says there is simply not enough runway left to recoup the cost of developing a new V8 application for this platform.
Why the math does not add up
Rehkugler was direct about the obstacle, saying Mercedes is “not planning a return of the V8 model,” and framing the decision as a question of amortization rather than demand. The current C-Class launched in 2021, a facelifted version is due soon, and the next generation is not expected until close to 2030. That leaves too short a window, in Mercedes's view, to justify the investment a V8 application would require, even for a car Rehkugler acknowledged was popular in markets including North America, Australia, Japan, China and Korea.
The platform was never built for this anyway
There is also a structural reason the eight-cylinder option is not simply bolted back in. The current C-Class's W206 platform was engineered around a four-cylinder engine from the outset, and according to a 2021 interview its chief engineer gave to Automotive News Europe, fitting even a six-cylinder would have required lengthening the front end and dealing with higher axle loads. The plan at the time was to close the performance gap with plug-in hybrid power instead, a bet that did not pay off once the four-cylinder hybrid C63 reached customers.
The hybrid experiment customers rejected
That hybrid C63, a 469hp turbocharged four-cylinder plug-in, was meant to prove electrification could replace displacement. It did not land well. Enthusiasts largely stayed away, and the model is already being phased out, a rare admission from Mercedes that the substitution did not work as intended. That failure is part of why this V8 question keeps resurfacing, and part of why Rehkugler's answer disappointed so many people hoping for a straightforward reversal.
V8 power has not disappeared from the lineup
Mercedes is not abandoning the V8 altogether, it is just placing it elsewhere. Rehkugler said global demand should keep the engine alive for at least another decade, with production continuing at least until 2035 for larger cars like the S-Class, G-Class and GLE, where it remains popular in North America and the Middle East. He was blunter about Europe, pointing to CO2 regulations he called “very restrictive and punitive.” Inside the C-Class family specifically, the closest thing to a V8 performance option right now is the CLE coupe and cabrio, and a V8-powered CLE 63 Mythos special edition is due shortly.
A six-cylinder consolation prize, at least
The facelifted current C-Class is not walking away from cylinders altogether. It is set to gain a new C53 variant using the 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six from the GLC 53, with unofficial estimates pointing to around 443hp. It will not silence anyone who wanted the V8 back, but it marks a return to more cylinders than the current four-cylinder hybrid offers, and a nod to the straight-six C36 that started the AMG C-Class story in the first place.
AutoNext Take
Mercedes did not really say no to the V8 C63, it said no to a V8 C63 that arrives on a spreadsheet that does not close. That distinction matters, because it means the enthusiast case was never really the argument being had.
The platform explanation is the more honest part of this story. A car engineered from day one around a four-cylinder was never a natural home for eight cylinders, and Rehkugler's amortization language is really just a polite way of saying the business case collapsed before the emotional one even got a hearing.
It is the same tension Porsche worked through when it brought the manual gearbox back to the Carrera S everywhere except Europe: enthusiast demand is real, but it increasingly has to clear a regulatory and financial bar that has nothing to do with whether people actually want the car.
The next-generation C-Class is the real answer here, not this one. If Mercedes genuinely believes V8 demand holds for another decade, and it is willing to say that on the record, then betting against a V8 C63 once a new platform is built around that assumption looks like the riskier position, not the safer one.
