Mild Hybrid CLA gets the latest ‘new’ petrol engine
Daimler has had a partnership with the Chinese Geely in the engine field for a few years. This will soon lead to the Germans’ last combustion engine, says a Mercedes executive.
The road to electrification has undeniably been started for Mercedes, but the Germans are not quite done with petrol yet. The new Mercedes-Benz CLA is based on the also new MMA platform, suitable for both petrol and electric propulsion.
“The platform has been developed with an EV-first idea,” said Markus Schäfer, CTO of Mercedes. “So the battery version was the priority, but it was then also made suitable for a mild-hybrid variant. This new power source was developed by Mercedes in Stuttgart, and production is in collaboration with Geely. To get the scale we want. This will be an extremely efficient engine, ready for Euro 7. Coupled with a new transmission that enables electric driving at low speeds. But that’s it. It stops here. That is the last development we are doing in the petrol field for the time being.” Although he mentions petrol specifically, Schäfer does not want to say whether there will be a diesel variant. “We are not yet announcing those details.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl