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Mercedes-AMG is ramping up testing of its answer to the Lotus Eletre and Porsche Cayenne Electric as it primes its saloon counterpart for a debut in the coming weeks.

Currently known as the electric GT SUV (a name that could be carried into production), the super-SUV is set to reach UK forecourts in 2027. It's the first SUV that AMG has developed independently of Mercedes-Benz.

The EV will sit on the AMG.EA platform, which will be used first for the four-door production version of the Vision AMG saloon concept in 2026.

The platform will feature 800V electricals and advanced axial-flux electric motors in both twin- and tri-motor powertrains, with outputs well over 1000bhp expected to be offered.

Developed by Yasa, the Oxfordshire-based firm owned by Mercedes-Benz, these motors each develop up to 480bhp and 590lb ft of torque and are seen by AMG as a key performance differentiator for its new SUV.

Among the performance benchmarks for the GT SUV is the 906bhp Lotus Eletre R.

The GT SUV will be heavily focused on road-going performance, but insiders have told Autocar it will offer variable ride height control to improve ground clearance in off-road use.

As for its styling, prototypes have revealed that its bold-looking design will incorporate elements that provide clear visual connections with its saloon sibling.

The front end is also set to feature a new interpretation of AMG’s Panamericana grille, together with distinctive headlights that include the three-pointed star graphics.

Flared wheel arches and wide rear haunches dominate the flanks, while retractable door handles – as seen on the EQE SUV and EQS SUV – increase aerodynamic efficiency.

Although AMG’s existing combustion-engined GLE-based models come in both SUV and SUV-coupé bodystyles, the new electric model will be offered solely in SUV form, with a “relatively upright tailgate and angled rear window” providing “the best balance between form and load-carrying space”, insiders have told Autocar.

Dimensionally, the GT SUV sits between the 4863mm-long EQE SUV and 5125mm-long EQS SUV.

Inside, it adopts a unique design for the dashboard and displays, together with new AMG.OS software.

“SUVs have been among our most popular models for many years,” AMG CEO Michael Schiebe previously told Autocar. “We are responding to this by offering customers a high-performance off-roader based on the AMG.EA platform. Our new high-performance architecture follows a clear philosophy: AMG first, EV second.”

AMG is remaining tight-lipped about the battery technology. However, Autocar has been told it will introduce a different chemistry combination to offer greater efficiency and a longer range than the existing nickel-manganese-cobalt battery used by existing electric AMG models.

Extensive development is also being done on heat management, especially around liquid cooling, to support much faster charging rates.

For reference, today’s EQE 53 4Matic+ uses a 90.6kWh (usable) pack that has a claimed maximum range of 321 miles and can support a charging speed of 170kW – good for a top up of 112 miles of range in just 15 minutes.

Additional new software developments and inverter technology developed in partnership with Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrain division in Brixworth are also on the way, Autocar has been told.

The new AMG SUV is underpinned by double-wishbone and multi-link suspension featuring the company’s newly introduced Active Ride Control system – a set-up also being readied for its new electric saloon.

Already incorporated on the current SL, GT and the latest evolution of the 45-year-old G-Class, Active Ride Control features hydraulic pumps for each wheel to help reduce body roll while providing constant self-levelling properties.

Without traditional roll bars connecting the two opposing wheels front and rear, it can also isolate the compression and rebound characteristics at each wheel in a bid to improve the ride over AMG’s earlier suspension developments.

Additionally, this set-up will support an automatic reduction in ride height at higher speeds for added aerodynamic efficiency.

Production of the new SUV will take place alongside the upcoming saloon at Mercedes’ Sindelfingen facility in Germany.

BMW has released the first images of a new model set to be revealed at the upcoming Villa d’Este Concours, seemingly fusing last year’s Skytop concept with the famed ‘Clownshoe’ Z3 M Coupé.

Images posted to social media show the silhouette of a model with the same rear lights as the Skytop, a rakish open-top GT unveiled at last year's Villa d’Este Concours, but a reworked tail section.

Rather than a long deck housing a convertible roof panel, it appears to be a shooting brake with a rakish glasshouse and a prominent ducktail-style roof spoiler.

Its form appears to reference the Z3 M as well as the Z4-based Touring Coupé concept that BMW revealed at Villa d’Este in 2023.

The Touring Coupé never made it to production but the Skytop, on the other hand, is being readied for a limited run of 50 road-going cars.

Testing of these cars – based on the CLAR platform that underpins every BMW from the 3 Series upwards and packing a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 – recently ramped up ahead of this year’s Villa d’Este Concours, which opens on 23 May.

Discussing the impact of Villa d’Este, BMW M chief Frank van Meel last year told Autocar: “It is a little bit like a test balloon: you show the cars and, if there's enough demand, it can be built.

“I think the demand is quite high, so [the] probability is quite high. We will see over the next few weeks if that interest translates into purchasing orders.

“The probability is there. It shows [that] we always want to try new things and see if there is a demand. Even though we’re a big company, it’s not the main purpose to build a small series.

“But if you listen to your customers and they say every now and then to do something like this and we do it, I think it’s a nice gesture, to show that we aren't only into, let's say, the cars we build everyday, but we can also do something special if demand is there.”

BMW design director Adrian van Hooydonk added that “there’s no need to turn [the Skytop] into a big series production car” and that it is “maybe an instant classic”.

In 1998, Volkswagen bought the rights to the Bugatti brand from the bankrupted Italian firm that had given us the V12-engined EB110 supercar.

Seven years and more than €1 billion later, we drove a Veyron for the first time. It was the fastest and most powerful production car the world had ever seen, by quite some margin, and it hit, if not exceeded, all of the targets that had been set – except for cost, because there was no constraint on that, and, despite it retailing for €1 million, Volkswagen allegedly lost €5m on each one. Or rather company supremo Ferdinand Piëch lost it, because the Veyron was his car through and through.

The idea only came to fruition because his attitude was: “You will get it done, and if you can’t, you will be replaced by someone who can,” according to Chrysler chief Bob Lutz. But then the Veyron was never meant to be a money-making exercise.

In our final issue of 1998, Peter Robinson commented: “Without Piëch’s astonishing assault into car territories once beyond the wildest fantasy of staid old VW, the task of writing Autocar’s weekly Grapevine column in 1998 would have been much harder.”

Indeed, Piëch had tried to buy Rolls-Royce, Volvo Trucks, BMW, Cosworth, Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti all in that year, succeeding with the last four and setting about planning a sprawling new model range using monstrous engines.

The world had its first glimpse of Veyron madness at the 1998 Paris motor show: the EB118, an ostentatious coupé concept with a 555bhp 6.3-litre W18 engine that “arose from a simple sketch [Piëch had] made on a serviette during a dinner”.

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At the 1999 Geneva motor show, even while Volkswagen’s W12-engined Syncro supercar was still on the cards, Bentley revealed an 8.0-litre W18 supercar of its own and Bugatti the EB218 concept, a saloon version of the EB118.

The intention was for the brand to return to the market position it had enjoyed in its original pre-war form, so “Volkswagen insiders were buoyed that the Mercedes team developing their own limousine, the Maybach, awarded the EB218 ‘benchmark’ status after visiting Bugatti’s stand”, we reported. 

This was shortly followed by the 18/3 Chiron and 18/4 Veyron supercar concepts, which were much closer in style to what we know today.

In 2000, though, it emerged that development of the W18 had slowed. “It seems the cost of having both 16- and 18-cylinder engines frightens even Piëch,” we suggested.

Soon after we sampled the 18/4 Veyron on condition of silence, and the big boss told us: “We have the technology under control.” Clearly they didn’t, though, because only a few months later, the supercar evolved into the 16/4 Veyron. Instead of three banks of two three-cylinder engines in line, it had VR8s grafted together into a W16 – much simpler. 

Nevertheless, there were fears that the Veyron project had become too expensive, even for Piëch and even after all the other planned Bugatti models had been canned.

Brand president Karl-Heinz Neumann, who was also in charge of the entire group’s powertrains, reassured us: “Volkswagen has the money. From the end of 2003 or the beginning of 2004, we plan to build 50 Veyrons a year – a total of 200.”

But by August 2003, Neumann had been “given his marching orders”.

“Despite the upheaval,” we said, “Bugatti officials deny the supercar’s performance claims will be scaled back. They say the four-wheel-drive Veyron will hit 60mph in just 2.9sec and top 252mph.”

And upon launch in September 2005, the Veyron did so. In fact, it was even quicker, hitting 60mph in 2.5sec. We were delighted and quite relieved to be able to at long last experience “a peculiar cacophony that sounds a bit like two TVRs on full reheat plus an industrial-strength air hose” being “accompanied by mind-bending, heart-stopping acceleration, the like of which has never been felt before in a road car”.