Mercedes Steals the show with Project One Hypercar

No sooner had the Frankfurt Motorshow started, when Mercedes-AMG stole the show with the Project One Hypercar.

The 740kW Electric Hybrid Hypercar had been rumoured for months but this was the first time the concept had been shown to the public and what a showing it was.

The Stats

In a time when not much impresses, Mercedes has brought to the table some pretty mind blowing stats. 0-200km/h comes up in under 6 seconds, that’s faster than the current heavyweight champ, the Chiron and faster than its namesake, the Koenigsegg One.  The Bugatti takes a paltry 6.1 seconds. One also has to note that at these kinds of speeds, dropping numbers becomes exponentially harder.

Many manufacturers have claimed to be influenced by formula 1 technology (I’m looking at you Ferrari F50) but Mercedes have put an actual Formula 1 engine into the On and made it better. The 1.6l turbocharged V6 Hybrid is said to rev reliably to 11 000rpm with the help of not one, but four electric motors.  All this tech is mated to an all-new 8 speed gearbox which according to Mercedes-AMG, was built for this task from scratch.

Tobias Moers, head of Mercedes-AMG said this: “The hypercar is the most ambitious project we have every undertaken. It marks yet another pinnacle of the successful, strategic development of Mercedes-AMG towards a performance and sports car brand,”

Competition has always improved the breed, and this is no different with Mercedes-AMG wanting the Hybrid Technology found in Project One to trickle down to its other models.

With all this power to lay down the all-wheel drive layout makes this not so much an F1 car for the road as Mercedes claims, but when it comes to the perpetual game of Super Trumps between manufacturers, Mercedes has just pegged itself as the Top Trump in the deck.