Mercedes-AMG has announced a replacement for the 4-cylinder, 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine is being developed in collaboration with the F1 team.

In an interview with Motoring, Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers said there's no more room for upgrades as far as the turbo-four is concerned since the engineers have "squeezed everything" and the "turbocharging technology is at its very limit." As a reminder, the revised A45 AMG (and CLA45, GLA45) now offers 381 PS (280 kW) and 475 Nm (351 lb-ft) of torque and this seems to be the motor's limit.

A replacement is already in the works and it is being developed with Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, the same team who was in charge of creating the hybrid 1.6-liter V6 turbo engine powering the highly successful Formula 1 car. One of the most important reasons why these engineers were asked to work on the new engine is because they mastered ERS and KERS technologies which in some form might end up in the next-gen A-Class AMG models that could get a downsized 1.6-liter unit.

Moers went on to specify there are slim changes of seeing e-turbo technology in these models, because it requires more power than the standard 12V electrical system can handle which means they would have to add more batteries. Mercedes-AMG experimented by adding an electric fan to the turbo and they obtained some advantages, but Moers says these weren't enough to justify the changes.

As to when we will get the next-gen A-Class AMG models, most likely these will be out before the end of the decade.