“We’re moving from a mechanical world of combustion engines to a world which is electric, digital and autonomous,” says Schäfer. “It’s happening at different speeds and being driven by regulations and geopolitics. We wish for stable regulations but this is not something we have. So the answer is flexibility.
“The ultimate proof is the customer’s choice: in the end, the customer decides what to buy. So we have to tailor the right product for the right customers, and if we show the benefit of new technology, the customer will buy it.
The end goal is clear for us: it’s the electric car, because it’s the most efficient way of transforming energy into movement, and a great tool for carbon reduction.
“But you don’t have to force the customer: you have to convince the customer this is a great choice, because it’s a desirable car, it’s great aesthetics, it’s emotional and there’s a business case. The CLA can do 12kWh/100km [5.1mpkWh] so it can be a great economical benefit.”
The CLA’s efficiency means that it will offer more than 400 miles of range as an EV, which, notes Schäfer, is “a huge step for an entry-level car”. That efficiency has been hard-won: “Three years ago, I established an efficiency department that does nothing but drill into the last bits and bytes that impact the efficiency of a car.
“We’ve looked at wind resistance, aerodynamics, the rolling resistance of tyres and every moving part. We looked at heating and cooling, and at the electric motor.
“That’s driven us to develop our own motors, because we thought we can do better. So instead of having one gear, let’s have two gears to decouple in a four-wheel-drive car, so if you don’t need one motor, it’s intelligently switched off.”
The CLA will be the first car on Mercedes’ new MMA platform, created for compact cars. The firm is also developing a new platform for medium-sized EVs and a bespoke performance architecture for future AMG models.
