Introducing new Concept CLA, Mercedes says Europe, North America charging to rapidly get better

When it displayed its Concept CLA Class for the first time in North America at CES 2024, Mercedes-Benz focused on the car's merging of novel user-experience, new all-encompassing operating system and a radical sound-system concept - all as examples of the company's intent to own its software-defined destiny. But the Concept CLA Class is more than a software story: it also is the showcase for the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA) that underpins the company's imminent new generation of compact, entry-level EVs.

In a roundtable interview with media during CES, Christoph Starzynski, vice-president - development, Mercedes-Benz Cars, said several of the hardware innovations in the Concept CLA Class are central to improving EV performance across many segments, not just entry-level models. The concept car, he said, previews next-generation hardware that will be available when the production CLA models begin later in 2024 to replace the current-generation CLA, which has been in the market for some six years.