Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius, a self-described “petrol head” who once ran AMG, says driving an electric AMG with a simulated V8 turned him into “a born-again Christian.”
The comments, made in a new interview, are Mercedes’ clearest pitch yet that enthusiasts, not just early adopters, are supposed to love its next wave of EVs.
Källenius made the remarks to Autocar’s James Attwood during a drive of the new C-Class Electric in Finland. The context was the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45, whose electric powertrain can simulate a V8 engine down to the pops, bangs, and feedback of virtual gearchanges.
“When I first drove the CLA 45 with that system, I was like a born-again Christian,” Källenius said. “It was the best V8 I’d ever driven: it had all the feeling of a V8 but with more power and torque.”
That is a notable endorsement from someone with Källenius’s résumé. Before becoming Mercedes CEO in 2019, he ran the AMG performance division, oversaw the company’s Formula 1 engine operation in Brixworth, and was executive director of operations at McLaren during the SLR McLaren program.
Selling performance to a skeptical audience
Källenius’s core argument is that the things car enthusiasts obsess over haven’t disappeared with electrification — they’ve just moved.
“For traditional car nuts it feels like you’re learning a new language,” he acknowledged, comparing the shift to arguing about “a 386 or a 486 processor” on a laptop in his university days. “The technology race has always been there as a combination of hardware and software, but now you have that in cars too.”
He’s betting the performance business grows on that basis. “Our intent is to over-proportionally grow the performance side of the business,” Källenius said, adding that AMG is now developing cars on bespoke platforms to maximize performance while still sharing components with the wider Mercedes lineup.
The simulated V8 is central to that plan. Mercedes has leaned into engineered sound across its performance EVs — the AMG GT electric supercar revealed in May pairs more than 1,000 hp with the same kind of artificial engine note. It’s a bet several automakers are now making: Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N and Dodge’s Charger Daytona use similar tricks to give electric performance cars a soundtrack and simulated gear shifts.
A software-defined Mercedes
The interview also underlined how far Mercedes is folding software into its identity. During the drive, the C-Class Electric’s AI assistant interrupted Källenius mid-sentence to volunteer that “the feeling of driving at high speeds on the autobahn can be exhilarating.”
The car runs Mercedes’ MB.OS operating system, which also underpins the new combustion S-Class and C-Class — meaning the software-defined shift isn’t limited to EVs. Mercedes is midway through launching 40 models in three years by the end of 2027, built on new MMA and MB.EA electric architectures that spawned the CLA and its near-500-mile range and the new C-Class and GLC.
Källenius framed that pace as only possible through a “thought-through architecture strategy.” As he put it: “If every nut and bolt on every one of those cars was new, you could never do it.”
Still hedging on the timeline
For all the enthusiasm, Källenius was candid about where demand actually is. He said the industry has “turned a corner” on electrification but admitted “the consumer is not quite there yet.”
He also stressed that Mercedes “didn’t wobble” on its long-term goal of going electric-only, while keeping its commitment to “high-tech electrified combustion engines” in the meantime — the same both-powertrains hedge most legacy automakers have adopted after cooling EV demand forced them to slow their timelines.
Asked whether car development might slow down now that electrification is mainstream, Källenius pushed back, quoting company founder Karl Benz: “The love of inventing never dies.”
Electrek’s Take
The headline quote is fun, and Källenius is appears sincere, but it’s worth being clear-eyed about what’s happening here. A “born-again Christian” moment over a fake V8 is, at bottom, an admission that the emotional case for performance EVs still leans on nostalgia for the thing they’re replacing. Hyundai proved with the Ioniq 5 N that simulated shifts and sound genuinely make an electric performance car more engaging to drive, so this works. But in my view, it’s a bridge, not a destination.
Regardless, my stance on the “fake” engine stuff is always: I don’t really care, as long as it is optional.
So far, I think Ferrari’s approach to this is the best, but I’m curious to see how well Mercedes can implement theirs.
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