In a few weeks I’ll be heading to Austria to do a lot of things in the Alps with Mercedes-Benz, including a winter test drive in the upcoming third-generation CLA. As that car moves closer to production, Mercedes has released a video of CEO Ola Källenius driving the new CLA around its Immendingen testing facility outside Stuttgart, Germany. The video and accompanying press release have given us some new details about the car, but I’m most excited about the star-shaped headlights.
When the Concept CLA debuted last September, everyone said there was no way the three-point star headlights and taillights would go into production. Ha! Thou of little faith. As the video’s presenter, Sarah Harman, reveals when she takes off a bit of camouflage, the CLA’s headlights feature a prominent LED cluster in the shape of the Mercedes logo. Although you can’t really tell from the photos and video, so will the taillights, and the starlights won’t just be reserved for the electric version of the CLA.
That’s right, I said electric version. The third-generation CLA rides on Mercedes’ new compact MMA car platform, which will also underpin the next-generation GLA and GLB, and has been designed with an electric platform in mind – meaning Mercedes focused on making a fantastic electric car and then adapting plug-in hybrid combustion engines to the platform, rather than the other way around, which usually results in more compromised EVs. Both the electric and PHEV versions of the CLA should look much the same, save for an enclosed grille that I hope will be illuminated as in the concept. The rest of the design looks just as great as the concept, with a really sleek roofline and frameless doors.
“Even though I’m a car enthusiast, I still prefer the electric car,” says Källenius as he takes the electric CLA onto the test track, commenting on how smooth and quiet it is, how good the handling is and all those typical things. The CLA’s electric powertrain has been designed from the ground up and is already used by the record-breaking EQXX prototype. It features a two-speed transmission, which Kallenius says makes the car “extremely efficient at all driving speeds,” adding that Mercedes can “perfectly calibrate how the electric motor works.” He also confirms that there will be an AMG version of the electric CLA, which I saw tested at Immendingen earlier this summer with a huge ducktail spoiler on the back.
Other features of the new CLA include a completely new software package and an infotainment system designed by Mercedes itself, called MB OS. It will include an advanced AI voice assistant and virtually every feature you can think of, Källenius says, and the CLA will also be the first production Mercedes to debut a column-to-column screen, like on the concept. The nerd in me noticed the new power seat controls, which I’m excited about.
At the end of the video they plug in the CLA, and while Källenius doesn’t say exact charging speeds, he says the CLA’s “powerful charging system” makes charging “incredibly fast, almost like refueling.” Mercedes said the Concept CLA could add a range of 250 miles in 15 minutes, and would have a range of more than 450 miles (on the European cycle), both of which the production model should achieve.
Mercedes says the new CLA will debut in 2025; I suspect at CES in January. What do you want to know about Mercedes’ next generation of compact cars and EV powertrains? I’ll find out all I can next month.
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