Mercedes has finally baptised its upcoming four-door coupe that will play little brother to the CLS, and it has been christened the CLA - mostly in deference to the fact that it is based on the same platform with front-drive architecture as the A- and B-Class hatchbacks. The A-Class you see pictured here will give a fair indication as to how the CLA will look when launched at the Beijing Motor Show this month.
The CLA will go on sale worldwide in 2013 and it will be powered by both petrol and diesel powertrains that will generate 110-150PS. The engines will be mated to six-speed manual transmissions and seven-speed dual-clutch automatics. We expect to see the latter being sold in India, with the former only entering if the B-Class is already here first to ensure component sharing and thus cost effectiveness.
Drive will be sent to the front wheels only in lower variants, with the higher-spec versions getting all-wheel drive. An AMG version with over 300PS will also be launched at some point.
