he 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE580 Has a Hybrid V-8 More Powerful Than an AMG GT
The mid-size 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE580 packs the automaker's most powerful non-AMG V-8, which produces nearly 500 horsepower.
The hybridized V-8 was first shown in the full-size 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS580.
The GLE580 will be the most expensive vehicle in the GLE lineup when it goes on sale in the fall.
Mercedes-Benz has found another home for its new electrically boosted V-8: the GLE-class. That's no surprise, as the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 with the 48-volt motor-generator, first seen in the 2020 GLS580, is a powerful and clean-burning engine with a future. This complex powertrain is slated to replace the standard V-8 engines in all of the automaker's current 550- and 560-series cars.
In this new GLE580, the setup produces the same 483 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque as in the GLS, with an extra 21 horsepower and 184 lb-ft summoned by what Mercedes calls the integrated starter generator. Mounted between the nine-speed automatic transmission and the engine output shaft, this motor-generator replaces the alternator and traditional starter motor. It runs everything else a GLE owner would want, such as air conditioning and the water pump, without an accessory drive belt on the engine. Driven gingerly, the system can shut off the V-8 at high speeds while coasting or braking to a stop at lower speeds, allowing the 0.9-kWh battery to temporarily run the GLE580 like an EV. It's identical in operation to the six-cylinder GLE450 we've tested, only with considerably more thrust and less fuel economy. Those estimates aren't available, but the last time Mercedes stuffed a twin-turbo V-8 into a non-AMG version of the GLE, it was called the ML550, and in 2012 we could only achieve 16 mpg in it. With bigger digits in the model nomenclature come greater expectations.
At $77,795 to start, the 2020 GLE580 will be the most expensive GLE in the lineup when it goes on this fall and will stay that way until the 2021 AMG GLE53 arrives late next year. That makes the GLE580 nearly 21 grand more than a base GLE350 with the nonhybrid turbocharged inline-four, and more than 16 grand above the GLE450. For that, you get real leather instead of synthetic MB-Tex, the AMG Line exterior package, an adaptive air suspension, and more features that Mercedes has not yet specified. The fully independent E-Active Body Control suspension will be optional. But for those who love luxury SUVs with fat tires, the most important takeaway is that Mercedes will keep giving you the V-8s you crave, now and well into the future-and don't worry, the upcoming AMG GLE63 will still use a V-8, too.
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