Mercedes-Benz keeps expanding its most compact model
line – and this is the latest. It’s the new A-Class sedan, and it’s running
full-speed ahead to the North American market. Previously revealed in
long-wheelbase form for the Chinese market and as a hatchback for Europe, the
new standard-wheelbase A-Class sedan sits alongside the CLA four-door coupe and
underneath the larger C-Class sedan.
It’s the Silver Star automaker’s rival to the Audi
A3 that was similarly be-trunked with US customers in mind, and boasts a rather
slippery shape to cheat the wind of its aerodynamic drag. At 4,549 mm long
and riding on a 2,729-mm wheelbase, the standard-wheelbase model
is 60 mm shorter than the version being made in China – but it
still packs everything that Daimler could throw at it.
The subcompact luxury sedan features the latest MBUX
infotainment system and a full suite of driver-assistance and safety systems –
including GPS-enabled cruise control, emergency braking, and lane-change
assist… features you’d expect to find in Benz’s largest sedan, but now packed
into its smallest.
Powertrain options are market-dependent. In the US,
the sedan will come in A220 guise with a 2.0-liter turbo four producing 188 hp and 300 Nm of torque, mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch
transmission and available in either front- or all-wheel drive. Elsewhere it’ll
be offered as the A200 with 163 hp and 250 Nm or the A180d
with 116 hp and 260 Nm.
It’ll also be produced in different locations for
different markets. The North American version will be built at the COMPAS plant
that Daimler built together with the Renault-Nissan Alliance in Aguascalientes,
Mexico.
European examples will be made alongside the
hatchback in Rastatt, Germany. And the long-wheelbase version for China is
being built by joint venture with BAIC in Beijing. Following its world premiere
today in Brooklyn, we’re told to expect the first examples to start showing up
in US showrooms later this year.
