Like it or not, the Mercedes-Benz CLA Concept will be put into production fairly soon.
German premium brands like Mercedes-Benz are facing a major challenge in the age of sustainability and electromobility. Many new brands and some legacy brands are able to leapfrog them in terms of on-paper performance and sustainability while offering products at a lower price point.
To maintain a leadership position, they have to innovate and break down conventions. Yesterday we saw BMW’s solution with the Neue Klasse concept. Today, we get a look at how Mercedes-Benz will tackle this with the Concept CLA Class.
The new CLA concept car is a major step forward and we personally think it’s the right model tthe brand should use to break conventions. The CLS became too conservative and irrelevant and was recently discontinued when it should have been what the EQS eventually became.
Mercedes-Benz haven’t made the same mistake twice. Instead of creating a new EQ compact sedan nameplate, they’ve simply repurposed the CLA. After all, the new A-Class sedan already fulfils the role of the CLA in its second generation.
For the third generation CLA, Mercedes-Benz is planning an all-electric vehicle based on a new Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA) platform. The aesthetics of this vehicle are out of this world and if you think this is just for the concept car, you may be wrong. Mercedes-Benz says this is a close-to-production look for not just the CLA but an entire family of vehicles that will serve as a new gateway to the brand in the electric and digital age.
Mercedes-Benz is claiming that the new MMA platform will bring significant upgrades in terms of the electric drivetrain components. They expect a range of up to 750km from either a silicon-oxide anode battery or a lithium-iron phosphate battery. The battery pack is put together with adhesives rather than screws and features an 800 V configuration for 250kW DC Fast charging.
You can add 400km of range with just 15 minutes of charging. Besides the improvement in batteries, the new CLA concept introduces MB.OS, a new UI/UX experience powering the MBUX Superscreen. The vehicle is also more sustainable overall thanks to CO2-free steel, and CO2-reduced aluminium, and other renewable materials used.
