Two-litre motor paired to an electric motor will help deliver stonking power figures.Current V8 will no longer be offered in the C63 line-up once the 2022 car arrives.

Now that we have seen the all-new Mercedes C-Class in all its glory, it is time to pay attention to the version that matters to us petrol heads – the fiery C63 AMG. There have been several spy photos of test vehicles, suggesting that the next C63 won’t rock the boat too much in the looks department. The C-Class is Mercedes’ bread-and-butter offering, but the hot C63 AMG, especially the estate version seen here undergoing winter testing in Scandinavia, is a rather special car with few rivals.

The heavy camouflage seems to hide a properly subtle evolution of the muscular sedan. Modest scallops in the fenders will draw attention to the badging, and the new C-Class face with a clear AMG edge and the Pan Americana grille will distance the C63 from the regular line-up. The rest of the car, however, isn’t much different from the current model.

That’s certainly not the case under the hood wherein you will no longer find a big thumping V8. Instead, there will be a two-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine which is currently also seen in the A45 hot hatch. In the C63, however, the engine will be paired with an electric motor which is expected to help deliver a combined power output of 550bhp. Now even though it will make more power than the current car, that snarling V8 is as much a part of the C63 as its AMG badge so it will be hard to guess how buyers would respond to such a move. Whether the mighty Merc’s future is a four-cylinder hybrid or a raucous twin-turbo V8, we can at least take comfort in knowing it would still look aggressive yet sublime.