The Mercedes AMG One hypercar caught fire. It was worth more than PLN 10 million

The Mercedes-AMG One is Mercedes’ most troublesome child. The Stuttgart company wanted to deliver the cars to customers as early as 2019, but it turns out that adapting a modern Formula 1 engine for road use is more difficult than it seemed. The first units are delivered to customers, but Mercedes continues to conduct tests on public roads. As reported by “The Sun”, one of these test copies of the AMG One was burned on the highway in England in a transport trailer.

– We are aware of an incident involving our vehicle, which was transported in a closed trailer. No one was injured in the fire. “We are investigating the circumstances of the incident,” a Mercedes spokesman said. Although there aren’t many remains of the car, it’s still easy to tell that it’s an AMG One thanks to its distinctive suspension elements. “The Sun reports that a car caught fire somewhere on the M6 ​​motorway in Staffordshire. The AMG One engine is manufactured by Mercedes High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth in neighboring West Northamptonshire, with assembly of the car taking place at the Coventry facility set up by Mercedes and engineering firm Multimatic. The complete car is then taken to the AMG factory in Affalterbach, Germany, for handover to the customer. Production of the AMG One began in August last year, but there is no data on how many customers have already received their copies.

Considering that the fire started while the car was on the truck, and that firefighters were unable to stop the fire, according to The Sun, it is reasonable to assume that the fire was caused by a battery fire. The AMG One uses a lithium-ion battery to power four electric motors – two on the front axle, one located between the engine and the gearbox and one driving the exhaust gas turbocharger. Mercedes wants to withdraw this project. Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius, who was head of the company’s R&D department when the One project was announced, jokingly suggested that the board was drunk when he signed off on the project.