“A super computer on four wheels”. Ola Kallenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, hails the new CLA as “the most technologically advanced car we have ever made”, while a fleet of drones lights up the Roman skies with the model’s name. The German carmaker chose the Eternal City for the international unveiling of its groundbreaking vehicle, its first Software Defined Vehicle, i.e. designed starting from a new central operating system (called MB.OS) that governs all the vehicle’s advanced functions.
The designers’ challenge
In essence, the challenge for the designers was to ensure that all this advanced technology didn’t render the CLA’s design “emotionally flat”. “We immediately asked ourselves how the design could convey exactly how innovative the car is”, says Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, whom we met up with in the Italian capital.
A four-door GT
The exterior team under Robert Lesnik, Director Exterior Design Mercedes-Benz Group AG, started with the proportions. “Our intention was to define the CLA as a four-door GT”, explains Wagener. “Our intention was to define the CLA as a four-door GT and the result is impressive thanks to an advanced technical base”. Wagener is referring to the new platform on which three other models will also be produced, one of them the CLA Shooting Brake.
The tucked away frunk
This platform is called the Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA), and it is designed primarily for electric power but allows for the addition of a combustion engine at the front: in the purely electric version, a 101-litre frunk (front trunk) is tucked away under the bonnet, a space that in the hybrid version is filled by a transversely mounted 1.5 petrol engine.
Zero-emission car proportions
The development of a compact engine has allowed Mercedes to achieve proportions that are close to those of a zero-emission car: with a length of 4.72 metres, the wheelbase is 2.79 metres, benefiting back-seat passengers. “An overall architecture that has favoured the achievement of excellent aerodynamic values (drag coefficient starts at 0.21, ed), but we don’t want the design of our cars to be defined by this aspect alone”.
The floating designed Superscreen
While the lines of the CLA have evolved with a nod to tradition, the interior embraces a bold digital approach. Led by Hartmut Sinkwitz, Director Interior Design Mercedes-Benz Group AG, the interior designers have crafted the absolute highlight of the interior: the floating designed Superscreen, which extends across the entire width of the interior and combines the screens for the driver and front passenger behind a large glass surface. The first, a 10-inch screen, is for the instruments, the second 14-inch display is for infotainment and the third is dedicated to entertaining the passenger, including access to a video game library.
(Full article in A&D no. 272)
