Mercedes launched a glance on the powertrain expertise of its upcoming electrical CLA, and it consists of tons of neat EV tech and a few fascinating choices for battery expertise and what seems to be to be essentially the most versatile charging system we’ve seen but.
We’ve already realized a good quantity concerning the CLA after first seeing the idea final yr, and Mercedes launched a couple of new specifics at the moment relating to its powertrain.
In step with earlier data we knew, the CLA is focusing on extraordinarily excessive effectivity of 12kWh/100km, which interprets to only 193Wh/mi or 5.2mi/kWh. That’s extra environment friendly than anything on the highway at the moment – with Lucid’s Air Pure reaching 200Wh/mi, or 5mi/kWh. And simply lower than what Tesla is claiming the Cybercab shall be able to, at 5.5kWh/mi.
That is due to Mercedes’ new compact EDU 2.0 electrical motor, which is a part of its new Mercedes Modular Structure (MMA) which is able to underpin its upcoming electrical automobiles. The drive motor shall be 200kW on the rear axle, although all-wheel drive fashions shall be out there with a further 80kW unit on the entrance axle. A two-speed transmission will guarantee effectivity at excessive speeds and low.
For extra effectivity in chilly climate, the CLA will use an air-to-air warmth pump which is ready to seize warmth from the motor, battery, and ambient air to warmth the cabin. Whereas batteries and motors don’t make practically as a lot waste warmth as inefficient ICE engines, it’s nonetheless good to have the ability to channel warmth to wherever you want it.
Mercedes says that the CLA will come geared up with a selection of two completely different batteries, every with completely different chemistries.
The bigger 85kWh mannequin shall be able to an unnecessarily-high 750km (466mi) of WLTP vary – although WLTP numbers are all the time larger than EPA numbers, so anticipate one thing within the high-300s in EPA parlance. This battery will add silicon oxide to the anode for larger power density, a expertise that has been pioneered by Sila Nanotechnologies, an organization which Mercedes is a lead investor in.
The smaller battery shall be 58kWh, and can use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry. LFP is a less expensive however decrease power density expertise, with larger long-term sturdiness and less complicated sourcing of minerals (it makes use of no cobalt, whereas Mercedes says cobalt has been “diminished” within the bigger batteries). Nevertheless, LFP typically has slower quick charging and chilly climate efficiency.
On charging: the “premium” battery could have an 800V configuration able to as much as 320kW charging speeds. Mercedes says this could add 300km (186mi) of vary in 10 minutes, and likewise says that the automobile could have a broad charging curve, which implies you’ll get excessive cost charges even when the battery isn’t near empty. It didn’t specify if the smaller LFP battery could have the identical cost charge.
This excessive charging charge allowed Mercedes to set a report touring 3,717km (2,309mi) in 24 hours on the Nardo check observe in Italy in a pre-production CLA. That’s a mean journey charge of 96mph – together with time spent charging.
We additionally realized one thing about Mercedes’ NACS adoption plans. Whereas nearly everybody has dedicated to transitioning automobiles to NACS, it has taken longer than anticipated (largely attributable to Tesla’s chaotic CEO firing the entire supercharger workforce for little motive), and few automobiles have native NACS inlets but. Some manufacturers can already cost at Superchargers with adapters, however Mercedes continues to be on Tesla’s “coming quickly” web page.
On account of delays in onbaording automakers, some appear to have pulled again on their plans, pushing NACS ports to later mannequin years. However Mercedes has a brand new and distinctive answer – it’ll simply put each CCS and NACS ports on the CLA, proper on prime of one another.
Mercedes says “sooner or later, new entry-level fashions shall be able to bidirectional charging,” however isn’t clear whether or not this mannequin shall be able to that.
Electrek’s Take
Whereas that is wanting a full launch of specs, we’re excited by what we see right here. Mercedes appears to substantiate that they’re assembly the effectivity targets they set out, and we like that they’re providing quite a lot of choices and profiting from some newer EV tech like 800V charging infrastructure.
The inclusion of each NACS and CCS could be very fascinating, once more providing choices to homeowners throughout the transition. That appears to be the large message from Mercedes right here – we’re not going to only decide one instrument, we’re going to make use of all of them.
However pricing and availability are clearly large questions, as is design.
The idea seems to be unbelievable, however ideas all the time change on their manner into manufacturing. The form of the camouflaged check car could be very completely different – however seems to be to have some shrouding on the back and front to cover its form, so we’ll have to attend till we see this factor unveiled for extra.
And as for pricing – Mercedes says the CLA shall be an “entry-level” automobile, however who is aware of what which means anymore lately. The bottom ICE CLA begins at round $44k presently, so lets see if they will hit that quantity.
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