- The Mercedes electric CLA overlaps significantly in price range with Tesla‘s Model 3 in China, offering a range of up to 866 km.
- Enhanced localization integration may become a key factor for potential buyers choosing the electric CLA over the Model 3.
German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has officially launched its all-new fully electric CLA sedan in China, competing with Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3 in the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) market.
Mercedes rolled out the sedan at a Beijing event yesterday, with a starting price of RMB 249,000 ($34,940), marking a RMB 10,000 ($3,860) reduction from its pre-sales price of RMB 259,000 announced in September.
Specifically, the new all-electric CLA offers two standard variants with starting prices of RMB 249,000 and RMB 285,600, respectively, along with a limited-edition model priced at RMB 299,900, available in only 100 units.
This pricing directly targets the Tesla Model 3 sedan, which currently offers four variants in China starting at RMB 235,500, RMB 259,500, RMB 285,500, and RMB 339,500.
The all-electric CLA is a mid-size sedan built on Mercedes-Benz’s Modular Architecture (MMA), measuring 4,763 mm in length, 1,836 mm in width, and 1,471 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 2,830 mm.
The Tesla Model 3 measures 4,724 mm in length, 1,848 mm in width, and 1,430 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 2,875 mm.
The all-electric CLA is powered by a motor delivering a maximum power output of 200 kW and peak torque of 327 Nm, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds.
The vehicle utilizes an 800-volt high-voltage electrical platform and comes standard with an 89-kWh ternary lithium battery pack. It boasts a CLTC range of up to 866 km with an energy consumption of 10.9 kWh per 100 km.
This makes it one of the longest-range EVs available in the Chinese market. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) launched a new Model 3 variant in China in August, featuring an 830-km CLTC range.
The all-electric CLA supports fast charging, enabling up to 370 km of range with a 10-minute charge.
The vehicle’s cockpit features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip, a current mainstream choice for premium EVs. It also incorporates a virtual voice assistant leveraging AI capabilities from Doubao by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
Enhanced localization integration may become a key factor for potential buyers choosing the electric CLA over the Model 3.
Production of the all-electric CLA was originally scheduled to begin in China this April but was delayed until August due to software development issues, according to a January report by local media outlet 36Kr.
In September, the company jointly announced with Chinese startup Momenta that they would collaborate on developing a smart driving assistance system based on Momenta’s Flywheel large language model.
($1 = RMB 7.1268)
