The 2025 Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid starts at $88,000, an $18,000 premium over the 2025 Mercedes-Benz E 450. As tested, the price was more than $110,000.

The 2025 Mercedes-AMG E53 is a plug-in hybrid that takes the stage at the top of the new E-class range. We drove the new E53 in the snowy Austrian Alps. All-wheel drive is standard, and our car wore winter tires. Thankfully. Still, a combined 604 horsepower is a lot to corral. It also happens to be one pony more than the previous E63 offered.

The 2025 Mercedes-AMG E53 is the raciest model in the new E-class lineup (at least until a new E63 appears). The dash-spanning screen is called the Superscreen, and it's an option on the E53. The car we drove featured sport seats and racy red seatbelts. The AMG-specific steering wheel has a thick rim and a drive-mode selector.

Hybrid can mean many things. In the AMG E53, it means power and performance in a new-generation sport sedan package.

However, the company's new AMG E53 4Matic+ did a fine job through whiteout conditions on narrow roads offering the kind of minimal grip levels that would send lesser sports sedans spinning home to their motherlands.

Mercedes-Benz E 53 Hybrid is arriving in U.S. dealers now, and it’s quicker and significantly more powerful than before. But it’s heavier, lacked the loud and angry AMG bark in an all too brief winter driving adventure,