Mercedes Plant Produces 750,000th A-Class and 500,000th B-Class

The 750,000th A-Class and 500,000th B-Class rolled off the production line at Mercedes-Benz' Rastatt plant in Germany. The two milestone vehicles, a lotus blue A 180 CDI and a horizon blue B 180 NGT with natural-gas drive will be delivered to customers in Germany and Great Britain respectively. Overall, the Stuttgart based automaker has produced a total of more than 2.35 million units of the two model series since the introduction of the first-gen A-Class in 1997 (second-gen model was launched in 2004) and the B-Class in 2005.

After Germany, the largest markets for the A- and B-Class are Italy, France and Great Britain while the biggest market for the two models outside Europe is Japan. At the beginning of 2009, Mercedes-Benz also introduced the B-Class in China.

2012 Mercedes-Benz GLA: New Compact SUV

On the cover of its August issue, German car magazine Autozeitung features a rendering of the forthcoming Mercedes-Benz GLA compact SUV that’s said to arrive in 2011 as a 2012 model. Although Mercedes-Benz hasn’t officially confirmed the GLA, back in June the German carmaker did announce that it will replace the current A and B-Class with four distinct compact-sized models. Having said that, a compact SUV seems totally reasonable especially since Audi and BMW are readying the Q3 and X1 compact-sized SUVs respectively.

Via: Autozeitung

2012 Mercedes-Benz CLA: “Baby” CLS Based on the A-Class

In it latest issue, German car magazine Autozeitung supports that one of the four distinct models that will replace the current A and B-Class in Mercedes-Benz’ compact car line-up (read more here) will be a four-door coupe named CLA. As you can see in the scanned picture above, Autozeitung’s artists came up with a CGI (computer generated image) to give us an idea of how a “baby” CLS model could look like. -Continued

While it is certain that Mercedes-Benz will abandon the costly sandwich structure of the A and B-Class in all four derivatives of its new compact car line-up, it remains unclear whether the German luxury carmaker will continue to use a front-wheel-drive set up or if it will opt for a rear-wheel-drive platform.

Via: Autozeitung

Mercedes Planning Electric A-Class with Lithium-Ion Batteries for 2010

Citing inside company sources, German newspaper “Automobilewoche” is reporting that Mercedes-Benz will market an electric version of the current A-Class in 2010. According to an unnamed senior manager in the automotive industry, the current generation A-Class’ sandwich construction with its double floor is ideal to fit the batteries without performing any serious modifications to the vehicle.

The newspaper also supports that Mercedes-Benz is currently in talks with Tesla for the supply of the lithium-ion batteries. Compared to nickel hydride units, lithium-ion batteries are not only more powerful but they also weigh less.