Mercedes-Benz CLE Coupé caught: two birds with one stone

Mercedes-Benz will draw a line through the A and B class around 2025 to focus on the higher segments, but models are also falling higher in the Mercedes hierarchy. For example, in the form of the new SL, Mercedes-Benz not only came up with a successor to the old SL, but in a sense also a successor to both the S-class Cabriolet and the AMG GT Roadster. Currently, Mercedes-Benz still supplies Coupé and Cabriolet versions of both the C and E class. Those of the C-class are also based on the previous generation of the car with which it shares its name. The E-class will soon have a successor. Mercedes-Benz does not feel like giving both model series a sporty two-door and an open version again and replaces all four body styles with one model: the CLE. These photos show the CLE Coupé for the first time. The CLE Cabriolet appeared earlier.

Mercedes-Benz CLE

The CLE Coupé is exactly what you expect it to be: a coupé with a similar line as the C- and E-class Coupé. The CLE still hangs fanatically in the camouflage patches, but it does not seem that Mercedes-Benz is transferring the extra bar in the rear side window that typifies the outgoing and previous E-class Coupé to the CLE Coupé. We also see that the CLE gets fairly tweaked headlights and that the hood ends at a considerable distance from those light units. The taillights remind us somewhat of the ones that Mercedes-Benz mounts on the back of the CLA.

The last CLK Coupé and Cabriolet before the C- and E-class each got its own Coupé and Cabriolet.

Just like the Cabriolet version, the MRA II platform under the CLE Coupé is also used by the C-class and the soon-to-be new generation E-class. By merging the Coupé and Cabriolet of the C-Class and E-Class, Mercedes-Benz is going back to the time of the CLK, the second generation of which was delivered until 2010. The CLK classes shared their base with the C class. The way in which the CLK was followed up was striking. Mercedes-Benz decided to give both the C- and E-class their own Coupé and Cabriolet variant. However, both models were on the platform of the then current C-class, although the E-class Coupé and Cabriolet also made more use of parts of the E-class. The model name CLK is still up for grabs, although Mercedes-Benz hopes to be able to position the CLE with the ‘E’ in the model name undoubtedly higher in the market.

With which engines the CLE’s will come on the market, is still the question. The C-class will only get four-cylinder. Yes, also the AMG models. The E-class will in any case still get six and perhaps eight cylinders. We bet that the CLE will also get six cylinders.