In our roundup of every vehicle being killed for the 2022 model year, one entry came from Mercedes-Benz and that's the Mercedes-AMG GT R. However, it seems like there's a long list to be added, according to a Reddit post from user bsw1234, who provided proof to the moderators of the r/cars thread.

According to the post, nearly all V8-powered Mercedes vehicles, including all AMGs, aren't going to be sold in the US for the 2022 model year. The reason for the culling is connected, but not limited to, global supply chain issues.

These models include AMG C63, AMG GLC 63, AMG E63, GLE 580, AMG GLE 63, AMG GLS 63, GLS600 Maybach, G550, and AMG G63. Only the S580 and S580 Maybach are spared by the said onslaught, according to the unposted document (due to privacy concerns).

Included text in the document that's posted on the thread seeks to provide an explanation:

However, we have to point out that the alleged announcement will remain a rumor at this point until an official word from Mercedes-Benz comes out, if at all.

​​​​​​​More importantly, the duration of the said move to cancel all V8s for 2022 isn’t clear at this point. But it goes without saying that it's going to be temporary, though Mercedes has already confirmed that the AMG C63 will be downsizing to a four-cylinder hybrid powertrain, moving forward.

We'll know more about this development in the next few days or so. Meanwhile, if you've ordered a 2022 model of one of the cars mentioned above, you might want to contact your dealer to verify the information.

Strict emissions regulations brewing in the European Union will force Mercedes-Benz to slash its portfolio of diesel- and gasoline-burning engines by about half in the coming years, according to the company's executives. While regulators across the pond haven't agreed on the new norms yet, the legislation is scheduled to come into effect by the end of 2025.

"[Mercedes-Benz] will reduce the number of engine variants, going through Euro 7, by about 50%," said Markus Schäfer, the chief operating officer, in an interview with Autocar. He didn't reveal what's getting axed.

The news comes shortly after Mercedes suspended sales of V8-powered cars for the 2022 model year, though the announcements are unrelated. While nothing is official, it's not difficult to imagine the engines retiring will be the oldest and biggest. The 6.0-liter V12 that powers the Maybach-branded S680 was launched in 2012, for example. One interesting point is that some models are dependent on a specific engine. Take the GT coupe: It's available exclusively with a V8, so if Mercedes sends its twin-turbo 4.0-liter to the pantheon of automotive history, it can either find something else to power it with or bin the car along with the engine. Seeing an entirely new V8 is as unlikely as seeing a three-cylinder GT; that leaves only the second option, though keep in mind this is merely an example.

Mercedes-Benz isn't the only carmaker that will be forced to significantly trim its range of engines, nameplates, or both in the near future — at least in Europe. Porsche recently confirmed that Euro 7 regulations will spell the end of the current gasoline-powered Macan. Building small, affordable cars like the Renault Twingo and the Fiat 500 will become economically unviable for carmakers, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), and the future of high-performance cars not powered by an electric powertrain looks grim at best.

Some fear the Euro 7 norms won't be strict enough; they'd rather see a ban of internal combustion technology. Others worry they'll be too strict and represent an oversimplification of a complex problem. "The planned obligation that new vehicles in Europe must be practically emission-free from 2025 onwards would be an ecological, economic, and technological aberration," warned Germany's Mechanical Engineering Industry Association.

What this means for the Mercedes-Benz range in the United States, where emissions regulations are currently looser, remains to be seen. On one hand, America is a major market for the German firm; it's also where many of its SUVs (including the GLE and the GLS) are built. On the other hand, it's unclear whether the business case for building gasoline-powered engines solely for our market holds water. Even if the demand is there, which it likely will be, the costs and complexities of building different technologies for different regions might outweigh the benefits.

Well, the future is looking bleak for Mercedes wagons. Where Volvo is determined to keep both wagons and sedans alive, Mercedes is allegedly taking a different route. According to a new Automobilwoche report, the German automaker plans to discontinue offering any wagon in its lineup by the end of the decade.

The dominos will start to fall with the CLA Shooting Brake, which will disappear from the Mercedes lineup for the 2025 model year, with no successor planned. A future generation E-Class, which will allegedly arrive in 2030, won’t offer a wagon variant either, according to the report. Mercedes introduced the latest-generation C-Class with a traditional wagon model, also offering a high-riding All-Terrain version that’s only available in Europe, but who knows how long those will survive.

The death knell for Mercedes wagons began ringing back in September when company COO Markus Schäfer discussed the dwindling appeal and market for wagons at a time when automakers are also spending billions to transition to electric vehicles. Allocating money to design, develop, and build EVs for a shrinking customer base isn’t easy to justify when customers want electric crossovers and SUVs instead.

Automobilwoche’s report notes that the company is considering alternatives to offer these customers, especially to German ones. Mercedes could offer high-riding sedans that can accommodate the batteries in the floor or make a starker distinction between the crossovers and SUVs in its lineup. However, the report doesn’t speculate on what this splitting could entail.

​​​​​​​Internal combustion engines dictated car design for a century, and electric powertrains will be no different. They give designers new freedoms while presenting a host of new challenges, too, like the thick floors needed for the battery packs. Aerodynamics and efficiency are vital factors to an electric vehicle right now, which will further dictate design in the years to come.

It seems soft-closing doors can be used for more than just making sure the door is tightly closed. They can also be used to sever part of your thumb. Because of this extra feature, Mercedes-Benz is being sued.

Richard J. Kastigar, Jr. is taking Mercedes to court after his 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE 450’s soft-close door ripped off part of his thumb in October 2021, Car Complaintsreports. That’s a full year after he first leased the car.

Kastigar — who happens to be chief deputy of the Pima County Sheriff Department in Arizona — said that while his back was facing the GLE, his right thumb was still inside the door column. That’s when the soft-close mechanism suddenly applied its force to shut the door. He said he could feel his thumb being crushed by the door and was forced to watch his digit being amputated.

Surgeons unfortunately were not able to reconstruct the thumb.

According to the lawsuit, due to the injury, Kastigar is expected to lose half a million dollars in wages since he can no longer work

The lawsuit also calls for Mercedes-Benz’s soft closing doors to use sensors in order to avoid future issues like this one. It also says the company shouldn’t be marketing this feature if protective sensors aren’t installed, as there aren’t any warnings about a possible danger.

MB isn’t the only company with a soft-close feature like this. In fact, most luxury brands have similar operations. According to CarBuzz, a similar lawsuit was brought against BMW in 2017 but was dismissed by the judge. They said this sort of injury was in line with owners who have been slamming fingers in car doors since car doors were invented.

Time will tell if this lawsuit will be successful, however, as it does call the feature “nothing short of a modern-day guillotine.” Very strong words.
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Last October, Daimler AG made a major announcement that'll forever change the nearly century-old German automaker. Shareholders voted to rename the company as the Mercedes-Benz Group AG with four unique brands: Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, and Mercedes-EQ. The truck and bus division was spun off last year. Why is this change happening? To unlock shareholder value. This coming Tuesday, February 1, 2022, is the pre-planned start date for the formal rebranding.

"We have a real chance to raise the multiple," Mercedes CEO Ole Kaellenius said. Although the carmaker didn't specifically mention a target valuation, it's currently worth around $85.70 billion. We'll know starting next week whether or not that figure will increase and, if so, by how much and for how long.

Going by the Daimler Truck AG spinoff in December, its shares have slightly increased, which is certainly a good sign. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz shares were at their highest since 2015 last November. The new Mercedes-Benz Group would very much like to become the next Tesla or even Lucid as a stock market darling, but industry analysts have some reservations.

For starters, those two carmakers offered all-electric vehicles from the get-go whereas Mercedes is still in the process of converting its ICE lineup to electrification. New BEVs like the Mercedes EQS and EQE are very good starts but there's still a long way to go. Because of this, there might be limitations as to how far Mercedes' value can go at the moment.

But there's another key factor that could hinder the carmaker's value ambitions: the defensive. See, legacy luxury brands like Mercedes (and BMW) are now going on the defensive to protect their market turf against newcomers like Tesla.

One analyst told Reuters that "Tesla's valuation is based on the assumption that Tesla will win market share from German manufacturers, who don't have a comparable revenue growth potential." There's no question Mercedes is on the right track with regards to the upcoming rebrand, but relevant future product is what's vital. The EQ-branded models that have been launched so far are an excellent start. However, more are necessary and they need to arrive soon.

In recent months the auto industry has seen plant closures due to a host of reasons — parts shortages, recalls, natural disasters, and even a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Now it can add to that list the threat of an invading leopard. A Mercedes-Benz factory in Pune, India, was forced to halt production for a few hours when a wayward jungle cat wandered into the facility,

When the 3-year-old male leopard was spotted inside the manufacturing unit of the factory, it caused a panic among workers, according to a release by rescue organization Wildlife SOS discovered by The Drive. The site was shut down for about six hours as a Wildlife SOS rapid response team from the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre and the State Forest Department safely removed the curious cat.

The team's veterinary officers Dr. Nikhil Bangar and Dr. Shubham Patil carried out the rescue operation, tranquilizing the feline and loading it into a wildlife carrier. The rescue took about four hours, and Wildlife SOS reports that neither the creature nor any workers sustained injuries. The leopard was released back into the wild.

No one is quite sure how it got onto the factory grounds, but Wildlife SOS says that the forests in the surrounding region have one of the highest densities of leopards in the world. It's also suffering from rapid deforestation. That encroachment by humans has led to a decrease in the leopard's natural prey as well, so wildlife experts think it may have been looking for food.

The Mercedes plant builds the Maybach S 560, S-Class, E-Class Long Wheelbase, C-Class, CLA, GLA, GLE and GLS for the Indian market.

We have a different theory. We believe that the cat was seeking to set the record straight with Mercedes. When the S 65 AMG debuted, Mercedes claimed it featured the world's first Road Surface Scan technology to detect pavement undulations and adjust suspension damping accordingly. The only problem with that claim: Nissan had the technology some 30 years earlier in several mid-80s models, including the Maxima and Japan's version of the Infiniti M30, which was called — you guessed it — the Leopard.

Mercedes has a busy schedule up ahead as it aims to slim down on the number of entry-level cars from seven to four in a bid to pursue higher profit margins with bigger and more expensive cars. To make it happen, the German luxury brand has decided to invest more than 75 percent in vehicles from the C-Class segment above, thus relying less on the compact models. Another major change will take place within the distribution network.

The three-pointed star is focusing on increasing the number of direct sales by introducing this "agency" model in 15 additional markets by the middle of the decade compared to only five today. If everything goes according to plan, 80 percent of the volume achieved in Europe will be done through direct sales by 2025. Going down this role will enable Mercedes to not only have more control but also reduce distribution costs.

Speaking of which, its distribution network will be overhauled by cutting 10 percent of dealerships globally by 2025. Three years later, there will be up to 20 percent fewer showrooms at home in Germany. Automotive News Europe cites Bettina Fetzer, vice president of communications and marketing, saying Mercedes needs fewer big dealerships in mature markets. However, new outlets are being added in China. In addition, dedicated AMG, Maybach, and G-Class showrooms are on the agenda as well.

Meanwhile, Mercedes estimates online sales will gain traction in the years to come, so much so that by 2025, one and one in four buyers will purchase their next car by doing a few mouse clicks. Fetzer mentioned that "customers are getting younger, wealthier, and more digital." Consequently, they are more willing to shop online instead of heading to one of the 6,500 dealers around the world. In its domestic market, the company operates approximately 1,000 outlets.

At the same time, Mercedes is pushing further into luxury territory by preparing a Maybach SL, an electric G-Class, and a Mythos lineup of ultra-limited special cars. The microchip shortage has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise as the company made more money by prioritizing semiconductor distribution to fancier cars.

Even though the sales volume had to suffer, profits were healthy. It showed Mercedes it can concentrate more on larger and more luxurious vehicles to the detriment of compact offering

While rival brand BMW M has been grabbing all the headlines with its 50th anniversary, Mercedes-AMG is also celebrating a rather special milestone this year. The Affalterbach-based performance subsidiary turns 55 this year and has introduced a slew of special editions to mark the occasion, including the A35 and CLA35 Edition 55 models.

But the party has only started over at AMG. A new brand campaign (called "55 years - changing the game") will commemorate the innovation and engineering prowess the performance arm has become known for. Ambassadors such as Lewis Hamilton and will.i.am will form part of a massive social media project that will tell the stories of both AMG vehicles and the people behind them.

There's plenty more to look forward to. A unique exhibition will honor legendary AMG vehicles at the Mercedes-Benz museum, while the exclusive AMG Private Lounge in Affalterbach will display a unique exhibition. Elsewhere, a special Inside AMG episode on the brand's YouTube channel will pay tribute to the anniversary through "different perspectives."

Those who know Mercedes-Benz and AMG are aware of the brand's illustrious history and contribution to the world of performance cars. Legends such as the 300 E 5.6 "Hammer" and 300 SEL 6.8 "Red Pig" cemented AMG's reputation as a builder of ferocious super sedans, while vehicles such as the current GT 63 S E Performance and the oft-forgotten SLS AMG Electric Drive represent innovation.

To round off the campaign, AMG legends of years gone by will be paired with their contemporary successors and will likely be displayed in the museum display and on social media channels. Think R129 SL73 AMG and the current AMG-developed SL range.

Mercedes-AMG continues to push the envelope with creations such as the One hypercar, a $2.8 million rarity that's powered by a 1,000-horsepower F1-derived V6 engine. Sadly, none of the 275 examples slated for production will make it to the United States.

Mercedes-Benz has pulled no punches when it comes to readying itself for the future. The relatively fresh EQ range has ushered in several luxurious EVs that may be oddly styled but do, at least, boast incredible technology and high levels of luxury. AMG will head down the same avenue soon and, while we will miss the baritone grumble of an Affalterbach V8, there's still lots to be excited about.

The recently previewed Vision AMG seen above is a thing of beauty and gives us a glimpse into the subsidiary's future design language. Here's to the next 55 years, AMG.

The Mercedes-Benz Metris will no longer be sold in the U.S. after 2023, ending the van’s brief run in the United States. The midsize Metris debuted in 2015 in America, but in the seven years since then Mercedes-Benz managed to sell only about 60,000 models. Many, if not most, of those Metris vans were delivered to the USPS, according to Automotive News.

The Metris just couldn’t crawl out of the shadow of the popular Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, nor that of its rivals from other carmakers like the Ram ProMaster and Ford Transit Connect. Mercedes-Benz dealers claim that the van’s size failed to make it a fit for commercial fleets. It was too small to be as useful as the bigger Sprinter, and too big to be considered practical like the smaller Ford Transit.

The Metris also failed to find an audience among buyers looking for passenger vans because of its reportedly low quality interior. Dealers even said certain Metris models didn’t deserve to wear the Mercedes badge. Ouch.

But not every Mercedes-Benz has to be an S-Class. That’s just an association Mercedes has fostered over the years in the U.S., while markets abroad include mundane cars from the carmaker. Of course, there are foreign commercial fleets full of M-B vans and foreign militaries which use barebones G-Class models.

The Metris was supposed to boost the sale of M-B’s commercial vans as a smaller sibling to the Sprinter, but never caught on. From 2015 through 2022, the Sprinter outsold the Metris by four to one.

Now, Mercedes has told dealers that the four-cylinder gasoline engine used in the commercial Metris and Sprinter will be discontinued. The I4 gasoline engines used by the commercial vans came from Nissan and were built in Tennessee. Since that production is pivoting to EVs, the engine is being phased out. So, the Metris is on the chopping block.

The Sprinter isn’t going away, but will only be sold with a diesel engine after 2023. The loss of its gasoline engine isn’t a big deal since dealers claim diesel-powered models make up 75 percent of Sprinter sales. With the eSprinter also coming, there’s neither reason to keep the I4 gasoline engine nor Metris alive.

The Sprinter will carry the commercial van torch for Mercedes-Benz all by itself in America. Unlike the Metris, the Sprinter has been well-received in the U.S., which is the commercial van’s second-largest market behind Germany.

The only thing left for the Mercedes-Benz Metris is to fulfill a multi-year contract of 30,000 models to the USPS, and when that’s done the Metris is out. Goodbye, Metris. We hardly knew you.

In July 2021, Mercedes revealed its intentions to go purely electric by the end of the decade. However, that statement came with a big asterisk at the end as the three-pointed star specified it would happen only where "market conditions allow." It means that even if the ICE will be retired in certain regions, there's a good chance the German luxury brand will still have gasoline-fueled vehicles on sale in most parts of the world.

Those won't necessarily all be small engines as Mercedes is determined to keep the V8 alive until 2030 and even beyond. In an interview with Australian magazine CarSales, the automaker's VP for vehicle development, Joerg Bartels, said the eight-cylinder mill is here to stay. He explained it all comes down to the tighter emissions regulations. If the Stuttgart-based can make it work and meet the CO2 fleet average targets, it has no intentions to retire the V8 or the smaller inline-six.

"In the end, it has to fulfill our overall CO2 strategy, and we have a clear path on that one: being CO2 neutral at the end of the ’30s, by 2039. And from 2030 we just want to be pure electric. But if there's still a customer demand [for gasoline V8s] in some regions, and it's still part of our offering, why should we stop it?"

Mercedes is fully aware it'll have a difficult time improving ICEs to meet tougher regulations – especially Euro 7 – but it knows some customers will still want to buy cars with six and eight cylinders. Bartels is confident the engineers can make just about every engine comply with tougher legislation, but that comes along with high costs some customers won't be willing to pay.

Bartels admitted it'll be tough to justify high development costs for ICEs once Euro 7 will come into effect around the middle of the decade, but that day hasn't come yet. Meanwhile, the V8 is available in an assortment of models and is set to continue in future products, including the second-generation AMG GT.

However, the AMG C63 will lose the V8 in favor of a four-pot, with reports stating the next E63 is also going to drop the 4.0-liter mill. On the flip side, Mercedes will happily sell you the Maybach S-Class in the S680 flavor with a mighty V12, one of the last twelve-cylinder new cars money can buy.

While the likes of Porsche and Toyota are toying around with synthetic fuels, Mercedes doesn’t think they’re a viable solution as it believes these are still bad for the environment: "We have looked into it, of course. But in an energetic way it doesn’t really make sense. How many kilograms of CO2 do you produce to generate the synthetic fuels?"

Archrival BMW has also pledged to retain its large-displacement engine, promising M models with inline-six and V8s will stick around until 2030 at the very least. However, the M760i has been dropped with the new 7 Series, meaning there's no more V12.

Mercedes-Maybach has introduced a new design package called the Night Series, which is akin to Rolls-Royce Black Badge models... if those models traded in their performance enhancements for a bucketful of gaudy visual enhancements. The Night Series package will be available on the entire Maybach lineup, which currently comprises the Maybach GLS SUV, the S-Class sedan, and the recently-revealed Maybach EQS 680.

So what is the Night Series? It's a comprehensive design package comprising exterior and interior 'enhancements' to make the Maybach models stand out. Mercedes specifically uses phrases like "Night Series defies convention" and describes its style as "a playful sense of rebellion," but it's really just quite over-the-top.

For starters, the exterior is characterized by dark chrome trim for the grille, window surrounds, and even the three-pointed star hood ornament. These dark accents are contrasted by rose gold details in the headlight clusters. But the dominating design element is the Night Series-exclusive wheel, a seven-spoke design with the negative space between the spokes populated by a Maybach logo pattern - like the Louis Vuitton pattern, just trashier.

The interiors of these models also get unique elements, like herringbone interior accents, several Maybach logos, and a piano black trim element with the same Maybach design pattern as the wheels.

Even the MBUX infotainment system has been fettled, with an exclusive start-up animation and special ambient lighting configurations to complement the Night Series color palette.

Beyond this, specific design elements exist for each of the Maybach EQS, GLS, and S.

The Maybach EQS, for example, gets a Maybach emblem on rose gold detailing in the headlights, while the front grille panel gets darkened Maybach pinstripes in the absence of traditional chrome slats. But its most heinous design crime is the lower air intakes featuring a dark chrome-plated mesh with the same Maybach pattern as the wheels.

The standard paint package comprises two-tone Obsidian Black/Mojave Silver, but you can also opt for plain Obsidian Black or Manufaktur Diamond White.

Inside, there's eco-friendly Econyl carpet, and the Nappa leather in Manufaktur Crystal White/Black Pearl is vegetable tanned. You can opt for a single-color Black Pearl leather with contrast stitching, too, but whatever you choose, the trim inlays are Natural Grain Herringbone wood with aluminum accents.

While the standard two-tone paint is the same for the Maybach S, buyers also have several grey, black, and white hues to choose from. Thankfully, the sedan misses out on the gaudy air intake mesh, but the GLS isn't so lucky. On both combustion-powered models, the exhausts are finished in dark chrome.

The Maybach GLS wears its special wheels in 23-inch size, while its power-extendable running boards are dark anodized. This model shares its color palette with the EQS.

According to Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of the Mercedes-Benz Group, "Night Series is the most progressive Maybach design package - it's our already well-known supreme aesthetics, heightened with exquisite, darkened motifs. Our goal was to create an exciting new style, offering a playful sense of rebellion that is unexpected to what you usually see in a Mercedes-Maybach."

The Maybach Night Series design package will be available on 2024 model-year vehicles, with buyers able to order matching apparel, including bags, eyewear, and sneakers.