We have been following the story of the new Mercedes-AMG A45S since we were one of the first outlets in the world to divulge the car’s power output (and that was way back at the end of 2018). The latest A45 made its international debut around the middle of 2019 and just a few days ago the model was launched into the South African market.

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Hyper-hatch crown

When Mercedes-Benz entered the hatch game with the previous generation A-Class, the company had its work cut out for it. Not only was the segment dominated by the class-leading VW Golf, but also the Golf’s stablemate, the Audi A3. The first-gen A-Class had some foibles but the A45 made many forget about those issues. The new top-dog hot-, or hyper hatch as the segment has been called, boasted an incredible 265 kW of power and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission coupled with all-wheel-drive to harness it. The Mercedes-AMG A45 blew all comers out of the water.

Click here to watch our video of the Mercedes-AMG GT63 S, which we drove on its international launch at the Circuit of the Americas.

Fast forward a few years and Mercedes had to ensure that its crown was secure with the latest A-Class. AMG announced that the new car would have 285 kW/480 N.m in non-S guise, and a whopping 310 kW/500 N.m in S trim (the latter is the only derivative we get in SA). An extra cog in the transmission and torque vectoring systems move power to where there is most grip. There is also a handy drift mode for tail-out antics (as you can see in the video below), where/when space allows.

Read our Mercedes-Benz A250 driving review at this link.

The new Mercedes-AMG A45S ride and drive media event was hosted at the AMG Driving Academy based at Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria. Double Apex was invited to the event and we sent our Managing Editor to experience the new model. You can listen to his impressions on the new model in the video below.