There will only be 275, and they are all already sold. The exclusive hypercar Mercedes-AMG One will therefore be for the readers of this article only a sweet dream, at 2.7 million euros all the same.
We have already had the pleasure of discovering it exclusively, on the sidelines of our Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S e-Performance review. Et we then presented it to you in a very detailed article that we invite you to consultsure.
But today, that’s it, it’s the big day, the small series production of the first 100% definitive copies begins. On British soil. Yes, not in Germany, for the simple and good reason that, for example, the powertrain will come from Brixworth, in Northamptonshire, the same place where the blocks of the F1 Mercedes-AMG Petronas are produced. And the final assembly will be carried out in the workshops of the partner of AMG Multimatic, in Coventry, which has set up a production unit dedicated to small series.
This car with superlatives, which we remind you, is inspired by and uses organs and techniques from the F1including its 1.6 liter V6 hybrid engine, plus 4 electric motors, developing a total of 1,063 hp, will be manufactured entirely by hand, according to 16 production stages, and 16 “assembly and test stations”.
Many of the sub-assemblies are assembled from scratch, before being disassembled and reassembled definitively on the car. This applies, for example, to the carbon monocoque structure and all bodywork attachments. Everything is adjusted in size by hand if necessary. Even the painting is done by hand.
Then the body-in-white and the powertrain are assembled. The latter having been previously tested in the Brixworth workshops.
Sixteen production steps
Here is an overview of the 16 production steps:
- Stations 1 to 4: assembly of mechanical parts and all low voltage components as well as installation of essential powertrain components, including vehicle electricals.
- Stations 5 and 6: assembly of the high voltage battery and high voltage connections, thermal and electric motor operating tests and tests.
- Station 7: interior installation.
- Station 8: Start of installation of exterior body panels, doors and quarter panels. During this process, the pre-assembled body panels: front hood, rear hood, quarter panels and doors join the main assembly line from the sub-assembly area. Here the particular challenge lies in the sometimes very different wishes of the customers.
- Item 9: continuation of the exterior installation of the front and rear covers.
- Item 10: final installation of the exterior bodywork.
- Station 11: assembly of wheels and floor panels.
- Item 12: wheel and headlight adjustment.
- Station 13: roller test bench to test the vehicle in all driving modes.
- Station 14: four-station NVH test (noise, vibration, jolt), fine-tuning if necessary.
- Station 15: monsoon rain tightness test.
- Station 16: lighting cabin with visual inspection of all surfaces and technical functional tests of all components.
In total, nearly fifty people will have worked on the realization of a copy of One, in an almost artisanal way, in the manner of what we can observe at Bugatti for the production of a Chiron or a Veyron before her.
The last stage consists of a rolling test session, by a tester from the factory, for final validation. Then, each copy is transported to Germany in a closed truck, to Affalterbach, AMG’s headquarters, to finally be delivered to the end customer following a technical briefing on the vehicle.
I know 275 of them who must now be stamping their feet with impatience.