Mercedes-Benz’s electric future starts with this CLA prototype

Mercedes-Benz is showing off its all-electric CLA prototype and sharing a few new details planned for the upcoming 2025 production version. The CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group, Ola Källenius, provides a limited tour of the car, in which he talks to its new AI assistant, and takes it for a spin in a new video posted by the automaker.

The CLA is camouflaged like the one spotted in September, but now we’re getting a look at the likely final version of Mercedes’ star logo headlights and a small look at the CLA’s interior. Mercedes-Benz says much of the tech from the EQXX Concept revealed in 2022 is incorporated into the CLA.

Källenius says this CLA “ushers in an era of a whole generation of new vehicles from Mercedes” that uses its newest platform: the Mercedes Modular Architecture, or MMA. In an interview on Decoder in 2022, he noted that we’d see a new EV platform in 2025, and it looks like the automaker is on track to meet its deadline.

Mercedes-Benz first showed off the CLA concept last year, and many of the features are trickling down to this prototype, including the Porsche Taycan-like two-speed transmission and 800V battery architecture that enables fast 250kW charging.

Interestingly, the automaker is also making a hybrid combustion version of the CLA — still part of the MMA family — that runs on a 48-volt system along with the electric transmission.

The CLA has the “first full version” of the new Mercedes Benz Operating System, or MB OS, that the automaker first shared at CES earlier this year, Källenius says. In the video demonstration he asks, “Hey Mercedes, how are you?” and it responds, “All the better for hearing your voice.”