The Mercedes-Benz CLA Concept Brings Electrification to Its Entry-Level Coupe
Instead of a radical transformation to EVs, Mercedes’ EQS vehicles have transitioned familiar vehicle styles to electrification. The EQS sedan mirrors the S-Class gas sedan, and so on. The automaker’s latest electric concept takes the same approach, and the near-production CLA EV that recently debuted at the Munich IAA Mobility show will bring electrification to the company’s sleek coupe-sedan body style.
Mercedes promised a world-beating range and 800-volt electrical architecture, which will enable fast charging. A single 235-horsepower electric motor uses a novel heat pump design to boost winter performance, and the automaker claims a 466-mile range on the WLTP standard. The EPA’s estimates are typically more conservative, so we expect a roughly 400-mile range when the car arrives in the United States.
The car’s interior sports a stunning array of screens and wild designs that won’t leave the concept stage. We’ll probably see an available Hyperscreen system, ambient interior lighting, and eye-catching stitching on the seats, but the CLA likely won’t have the same over-the-top luxury interiors that the EQS and EQS SUV offer.
The electric CLA is also expected to offer Mercedes’ long-touted Level 3 automated driving assistant, but it probably won’t be ready for the car’s reveal. The automaker has said the car will have the hardware it needs to operate, but there are more regulatory hoops to jump through before it’s ready for primetime.
[Image: Mercedes-Benz]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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Extra credit: Explain the door handle design on the last slide (next to the cardboard couch).
A concept car with a heat pump. Will these wonders never cease? It's so obvious why Tesla is outselling M-B in H2.
The teaser just looked angry. The full car looks like a new generation Dodge Dart.
I was enamored of M-Bs some 50 years ago. Good looking cars, well built but way above the price-range of a single poor sailor. I went to an M-B dealership in Bangkok during one of my overseas adventures. The car on the sales floor was, after looking at it pretty carefully inside and out, about 90% the same in content as what I'd seen in Southern California dealerships. After converting the listed price from bhat to US dollars, it was about a third of the price of that same (with the missing 10% content) car in those Southern California dealerships. Over the years since and with the funds necessary to purchase one of their products here in the US I've never even considered purchasing an M-B product.