Mercedes-AMG Reconfirms One Hypercar Deliveries Will Start In 2021

It's not a secret that the Mercedes-AMG One is running behind schedule. The hypercar was first revealed in 2017 and was slated to go into production in 2019. The initial plan was delayed but we have good news coming from Affalterbach – the first examples will finally be delivered to customers in 2021 and this was revealed by Michael Knöller, AMG's global boss of product management and sales.

While at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Knöller spoke to Road and Track and confirmed the customers have been informed that they will begin receiving their cars from 2021. "When you make F1 technology street-legal, you have to go through a journey with the customers. We had some challenges, but now we've reached a tipping point."

Here's why it's tricky to put an F1 engine in a road car

But what caused the delay from the initial strategy? See, when you have to turn a hypercar powered by an F1 powertrain into a road-legal vehicle, you definitely face certain challenges. One of the biggest challenges for Mercedes-AMG engineers was to make the 1.6-liter race engine idle at civilized 1,200 rpm rather than the usual 5,000 rpm. Add to that the emissions and noise regulations, and you have a pretty good picture of the current situation at AMG.

Another challenge is the fact that you can't just start an F1 engine by pressing a button – those engines are fired up with an external starter and, before that happens, the oil has to be warmed up. You can probably also imagine the longevity of a 1.6-liter engine spinning at up to 15,000 rpm is not especially great, so this is one more major technical issue to worry about.

Mercedes-AMG will build just 275 examples of the hypercar, all of which are already sold at $2.7 million each.