At a star-studded event that closed downtown Los Angeles’ Sixth Street Viaduct last night, Mercedes and AMG unveiled the next generation of performance electric vehicles. The new four-door GT Coupe arrives in the midst of a pivotal period, the result of an almost experimental process that seems to take two steps forward and one step back quite regularly.

In many ways, the all-electric AMG leaves previous plans in the past by effectively bringing the record-setting Concept AMG GT XX to series production. New axial motors from YASA and F1-derived battery cells are among many firsts for Mercedes supporting the abandonment of internal combustion power.

A new look: In person, the new GT bears almost no resemblance to any of Benz’s prior EVs. No more bulbous, nautical EQS shapes or minorly smoothed over boxy G-Wagen aesthetic. The new design is more aided by digital renderings and iterative algorithms, especially the jutting front grille, reclined headlights, and Kamm-tail rear end—a bit of Aston Martin fore and aft.

The proportions fit somewhere between a Porsche Panamera or Taycan, low-slung and slippery for ideal aerodynamic efficiency. Specs on paper support that impression, as the new GT measures 1.7 inches (43 mm) shorter in height and 1.4 inches (35.5 mm) longer overall, with the wheelbase stretched by 3.5 inches (89 mm) versus the outgoing model.

Inside, the increasingly digital cockpit continues to evolve, with a new dash layout and canted touchscreens. The event afforded nobody but the stars a chance to actually sit in the passenger compartment, but diagrams shared with the media in advance revealed a typical EV skateboard chassis, albeit with a center spine similar to a transmission tunnel on an internal-combustion engine car to house critical EV components, as well as ‘foot garages’ dropped in between battery modules that improve ergonomics. The large hatchback trunk behind the second-row seats complements a minuscule 1.4-cubic-foot (40L) frunk.