Mercedes’ CLA Coupé, CLA Shooting Brake and GLA will now be available with EQ Power plug-in hybrid powertrains. The CLA 250 e Coupé and CLA 250 e Shooting Brake are due to go on sale in April, while the GLA 250 e will go on sale in May. First deliveries are expected early in the summer and UK pricing and specification is still to be confirmed.

Highlights include:

• Electric operating ranges of 71-79 km (NEDC)
• Electric output 75 kW
• System output 160 kW
• System torque 450 Nm
• Alternating-current (AC) charging system up to 7.4 kW
• Direct-current (DC) charging system at max. 24 kW
• Hardly any restrictions on the load compartment.

The vehicles belonging to Mercedes-Benz’s compact car family feature transversely mounted engines. A compact hybrid traction head has been developed for the 8G-DCT dual clutch transmission which follows the same technical principles as the corresponding component on the vehicles with a longitudinally installed engine. It is a permanently excited synchronous machine as an internal rotor. The stator is permanently integrated in the traction head housing, while the low-loss wet clutch is incorporated in the motor’s rotor.
On-demand stator and rotor cooling allow use of the electric motor’s peak and continuous output without any problems.

For the first time on a Mercedes-Benz vehicle, the combustion engine is started by the electric motor – the compact hybrids do not have a separate 12-volt starter.