Mercedes A-Class A45 AMG Hot Hatch Era Is Over

The hot hatch extinction event

Where will the Giant Evil Hot Hatch Death Ray fire next? It has already reduced the Ford Fiesta and Focus ST to rubble, taken out the Hyundai i20N and i30N, and erased the Skoda Fabia vRS, Seat Ibiza Cupra, Peugeot 208 GTI, Renault Clio and Megane RS, Vauxhall Corsa and Astra VXR, Audi S1, Suzuki Swift Sport… you know how this goes.

Hot hatches are disappearing. Even the most potent example ever built is not immune.

Mercedes chief technology officer Markus Schafer has confirmed that the firm is not developing a successor to the current A-Class. The likely explanation is obvious: it is insufficiently profitable, its market is largely European, SUVs generate more revenue and sell across the world, and batteries are simpler to accommodate in them. You had already worked that out, hadn’t you?

Consequently, the new, technology-packed CLA - introduced to your consciousness last week with hybrid and fully electric powertrains - will not gain a hatchback counterpart.

Mercedes A-Class and AMG A45: the final chapter

For fans of logic, that also means there will be no next-generation A35 or A45 AMG. The Mercedes hot hatch story is ending. The existing line-up will continue until 2026, but after that, it is finished.

How will the A45 be judged by history? Most likely as an utterly unhinged engine installed in a chassis that did not entirely merit it. When the original appeared in 2013, it landed in the hot hatch world like a hypersonic missile at the Battle of Hastings. AMG’s wild-eyed engineers had somehow extracted 355bhp from a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, complete with a turbocharger whose warranty was counted in years rather than tenths of a second.

Then came a facelift, and additional power. It was subsequently replaced, with more power once again. The flagship A45 S brought drift mode through ingenious rear-axle clutch packs and lifted output to nearly 420bhp. A Mercedes family runabout producing more power than a Ferrari 360? Completely bonkers.

No A45 offered the most nuanced handling in its class: genuine hot hatch purists favoured the Honda Civic Type R’s racing-car reactions. Yet, if you wanted the most ludicrous four-cylinder engine ever fitted to a road car - perhaps excluding certain especially deranged Mitsubishi Evos - Mercedes was ready to accept your money.

The engine itself will survive, naturally. Lotus uses it in the Emira; it achieves even more remarkable levels of “are you sure?” madness in the strange C63 hybrid; and Mercedes sources have told TopGear.com that an AMG version of the impressively smooth new CLA is being planned.

The end of the Mercedes hot hatch

That seems to close the book on the conventional Mercedes A-Class hatchback. It has been a peculiar side street in Benz history: evolving from a tall, elk-conscious, sandwich-floor oddity into a conventional Golf competitor, before becoming the most powerful hot hatch ever made.

Will you miss the A-Class? And should AMG give it a stripped-back farewell with an A45 Black Series?