Mercedes-Benz has revealed its latest offering in the luxury compact sedan segment, the A-Class sedan, which will share the stage with the CLA and will make its way to India by 2019. The A-Class sedan will be based on the MFA II platform that is also used in the B-Class and the CLA. The platform can be used with two rear suspension layouts: a torsion beam arrangement or a multi-link system depending on the variant.
The compact sedan is expected to be launched with two engine options. An ‘A200’ badged variant that will be powered by a turbocharged 1.3-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine producing 163bhp and 250Nm along with a ‘180d’ badged variant with a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder diesel motor producing 116bhp and 260Nm. Both the engines will be mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and will be front-wheel-drive. The A-Class sedan has the lowest aerodynamic drag of all production vehicles worldwide, a record that was previously set by the CLA.
The sedan shares its styling with the hatchback, with the same front-end treatment, similar grill and angular tapering headlamps. The boot holds 420 litres and has a very large opening which should allow for comfortable loading and unloading. The four-door sedan has short overhangs at the front and rear, and has a wheelbase of 2729mm.
It is 130mm longer and is 6mm taller than the hatchback. It shares the same dashboard and infotainment system as the new hatchback, and is equipped with Mercedes’ new MBUX infotainment system with touchscreen control and speech recognition. The sedan will be built at Mercedes-Benz’s Rastatt plant in Germany and in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
The all-new compact sedan with its compact design and shorter wheelbase will compete with the Audi A3 sedan and upcoming BMW 2-series Gran Coupé.
Mercedes-Benz also plans to offer the A-Class sedan in all-wheel-drive 4Matic variants (35 4Matic and 45 4Matic) from its AMG division.