Mercedes Brings Its S-Class World Tour Home — and Reveals a 1,153-HP AMG GT SUV

Three Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans named Bertha, Carl, and Gottlieb rolled back into the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on Saturday, closing a 40,000-mile loop that started on January 29. Mercedes used the homecoming to put roughly 20,000 people in front of a stage and reveal the most powerful SUV it has ever built: the electric Mercedes-AMG GT SUV.

The "140 Years. 140 Places" drive was the centerpiece of the brand's 140th-anniversary year, and we followed its final European leg through Istanbul and the Balkans last month. By Mercedes' count, the three cars crossed 67 borders in 55 countries on six continents, reset their clocks 28 times, and averaged about 280 miles a day over nearly nine months.

A nine-month durability test, company-graded

Mercedes pitches the trip as real-world validation of the new S-Class that a climate chamber can't replicate. The company points to the Umling La pass in India, where the cars climbed to around 19,000 feet, to monsoon-flooded roads farther south, and to the unpaved stretches of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia that we covered when the convoy crossed Africa. The temperature swing along the route exceeded 122°F.

Worth keeping in mind: these are the automaker's own observations, not independent testing. The sedan is having a mixed year on that front in the US, where third-quarter S-Class sales jumped 47% even as a brake-hose recall widened to more than 30,000 cars.

What "The 140 Festival" looked like

The three sedans finished their last miles inside a convoy of 140 vehicles spanning the company's history: an 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen replica, the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that Mercedes calls the world's most valuable car, a 220 S "Ponton," the C 111 experimental car, the electric G-Class and C-Class, and the 30-unit AMG CLE 646 Spezialanfertigung. A concert closed the evening, and the museum opens its grounds to the public on Sunday with the historic cars on display.

AMG GT SUV: 1,153 hp and a 12-minute charge

The headline reveal was the Mercedes-AMG GT SUV, the second model on AMG's dedicated AMG.EA electric platform after the GT 4-Door Coupe, and the first full-size SUV engineered entirely by Affalterbach. Three versions are planned. Mercedes-AMG's provisional figures put the GT 63 at 1,153 hp (860 kW) and 1,475 lb-ft from three axial-flux motors, with 0–60 mph in 2.4 seconds and a 168-mph top speed. The GT 55 makes up to 805 hp (600 kW) from the same three-motor layout; the entry GT 53 uses two synchronous motors and 536 hp (400 kW).

The GT 63 and GT 55 carry a 128-kWh battery rated at up to 435 miles (700 km) on the WLTP cycle, a figure that will shrink noticeably under EPA testing. The more striking number is charging: up to 710 kW, with a 10–80% stop quoted at about twelve minutes and 279 WLTP miles added in ten. For comparison, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric, the car this SUV is clearly aimed at, claims 1,140 hp with launch control, a 113-kWh pack, and 400-kW charging that needs just under 16 minutes for the same 10–80% window. On paper, the AMG matches it on power and nearly doubles its charging rate.

Mercedes-Benz USA says all three versions reach dealerships in 2027. US pricing hasn't been announced, and Mercedes hasn't said which variant lands first. AMG also used the stage to point toward its own 60th anniversary in 2027, so expect the GT SUV launch to be wrapped into that.

The anniversary isn't over

Mercedes has a few more 140th-anniversary items scheduled before year-end: a limited adidas Samba OG collaboration that went on sale October 13, additional Mercedes-Benz Studios opening in cities after Copenhagen, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Delhi, a 475-foot glass façade in Munich turned into an Advent calendar in December, a yuzu-and-eucalyptus anniversary fragrance for the cabin, and a coffee-table book documenting the 140-stop journey. Details on the festival are on Mercedes' event page.