Mercedes-Benz has chosen to unveil their Concept A saloon at the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show, which basically serves as a rather detailed preview of how the next all-new A-Class and A-Class saloon will look.
Following this motor show reveal, a production version should be ready for a showroom launch by the end of this year. Understandably, Benz is itching to field a rival to the Audi A3 sedan and the next BMW 1 Series. Speaking of which, their Munich rival already has an entry-level front-wheel drive four-door sedan (F52) that’s manufactured and sold exclusively in China.
As previously alluded to and now plain to see on the Concept A, Mercedes-Benz is pivoting away from the crease-heavy designs of its recent past and adopting a smoother, more subtly contoured ‘Sensual Purity’ exterior that is already somewhat evident in the W213 E-Class and W205 C-Class.
"Our Concept A Sedan shows, that the time of creases is over”, say Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer Daimler AG. “With its perfect proportions and a sensual treatment of surfaces with reduced lines, it is the next milestone of Sensual Purity and has the potential to introduce a new design era.”
Mercedes-Benz has also made a point of endowing the A Concept with an aggressive face to complement the more graceful design cues along the sides and rear of the car. They describe this as a ‘predator face’, with an sharp pair of headlights and a protruding grille with the same kind of vertical slats first seen on the AMG GT R. Expect to see this front end on the upcoming CLS as well.
It’s near certainty that the upcoming A-Class saloon will mirror the hatch’s engine line-up, trim levels, and equipment nearly identically, including the 298kW AMG-fettled A45 variant, lining up perfectly in terms of timing with the eventual widespread availability with of the Audi RS3 sedan.
This doesn’t mean that the CLA will be ditched, as the car continues to sell well in nearly all markets, though it currently loses some practicality points due to its lowered roofline, a weakness that perhaps spurred the development of a proper A-Class sedan in the first place.
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