{"id":80878,"date":"2026-08-29T05:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/80878\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T05:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:02:20","slug":"mercedes-ceo-the-best-v8-ive-ever-driven-is-an-ev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/80878\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes’ CEO: the Best V8 I’ve Ever Driven Is an EV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola K\u00e4llenius<\/a> has found religion in synthetic engine noise.<\/p>\n

He said his conversion came when he drove the new electric version of the AMG CLA 45, Mercedes’ performance sedan. It uses artificial sounds and sensations to mimic a combustion-powered car.<\/p>\n

“I was like a born-again Christian,” he told UK car enthusiast publication Autocar<\/a>. “It was the best V8 I’d ever driven: It had all the feeling of a V8 but with more power and torque.”<\/p>\n

Electric vehicles have posed numerous design challenges for legacy automakers, forcing decades-old brands to rethink everything from exterior styling to digital cabin layouts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sound has been particularly thorny for performance brands: EVs accelerate without an engine’s grunting revs, gear changes, or exhaust note. Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N<\/a> and Dodge’s electric Charger Daytona<\/a> have tried to fill that sensory gap with simulated sounds and shifts, to varying degrees of success.<\/p>\n

Mercedes already offers synthetic soundscapes in some mainstream EVs. Its sport-branded AMG models go further, with multiple forms of sensory feedback that mimic the sensations experienced by gas-powered racers.<\/p>\n

Like the Dodge and Hyundai, Mercedes’ EV system pumps noise into the cabin. Unlike other performance-minded EVs, the AMG also introduces power interruptions during simulated shifts, like a gas car does when it changes gears, and seat shakers to mimic combustion-engine vibrations, too.<\/p>\n

K\u00e4llenius, who previously ran AMG and served as executive director of operations at supercar maker McLaren, said that the Mercedes-AMG-based system won him over.<\/p>\n

It’s an important time for Mercedes to nail the sporty EV experiment. Its first generation of EQ-branded models<\/a> struggled to find customers in America, eventually prompting US price cuts and a production pause. The company also softened its earlier ambition to go all-electric by 2030.<\/p>\n

Want more Business Insider in your news feed?<\/p>\n

\n Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you\u2019re searching for what matters.\n <\/p>\n

Now, the luxe automaker has a new approach. Mercedes is folding electric drivetrains into familiar nameplates rather than maintaining a parallel EQ family.<\/p>\n

Still, K\u00e4llenius said that “the consumer is not quite there yet” on a full shift to EVs.<\/p>\n

Whether those theatrics can persuade traditional AMG buyers to choose an EV when the gas-powered equivalent sits on the same dealership lot remains an open question.<\/p>\n

Mercedes-Benz didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola K\u00e4llenius has found religion in synthetic engine noise. He said his conversion came when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20951],"tags":[58959,36284,58960,58965,6287,55705,16783,58967,58961,22521,58966,58964,8365,3622,58963,58962],"class_list":["post-80878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mercedes-benz","tag-amg-cla","tag-artificial-sound","tag-best-v8","tag-born-again-christian","tag-ceo","tag-dodge","tag-ev","tag-exhaust-note","tag-gear-change","tag-hyundai","tag-ioniq","tag-kallenius","tag-mercedes","tag-mercedes-benz","tag-sensation","tag-shift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}