Mercedes fans were not too excited when they heard that Mercedes would give up C/E/S-Class coupes and convertibles. But here’s the good news: from 2023 comes the new Mercedes CLE Cabrio followed by the CLE Coupe. They replace the former C/E-Class convertible and coupe.
Photo: Auto motor und sport
German magazine auto motor und sport announces that Mercedes will not give up convertibles and coupes. In 2023, the Mercedes CLE will be launched, a four-seater convertible captured in the accompanying spy photos.
Last year, Ola Kallenius, the new head of Mercedes, announced that Mercedes would have to narrow the conventional range in order to allocate additional funds to the new electric range. Thus, Mercedes C-Class convertible and coupe, E-Class convertible and coupe and S-Class convertible and coupe were no longer on the list of models that will receive a successor.
The S-Class Cabrio is indeed dead, but the C-Class Cabrio and E-Class Cabrio will have a successor to be named the Mercedes CLE Cabrio. The truth is that the C-Class convertible and the E-Class convertible were very close in terms of space offer and their design was only slightly different. Therefore, the existence of both models is no longer justified.
This is not the first time that Mercedes has launched models between classes. In the past there was a Mercedes CLK Coupe which was in fact the C-Class coupe and was placed placed between the C-Class and the E. Then, Mercedes had another E-Class Coupe that was actually made on the former C-Class platform.
Mercedes CLE convertible will be launched in 2023 because the next generation E-Class will be presented in 2023. The good news is that there will be also a coupe version.
As a price positioning, the Mercedes CLE Coupe will not be placed between the C-Class and the E-Class but will be more expensive than the E-Class. Auto motor und sport estimates that the Mercedes CLE convertible version will cost over 60,000 euros.
From the first spy photos presented by auto motor und sport magazine it is observed the mirrors are placed on the door sill while at sedan they are housed in the triangular window. The body line goes up to the back and the soft-top roof extends quite a bit to the rear while the trunk lid is very short. The design will be inspired more by the C-Class than the E-Class because Mercedes wants to imprint the sportier line of the new C-Class on the new coupe/convertible. We expect the coupe version not to have a B-pillar, a traditional design detail for Mercedes coupes from the last half century.
No surprise inside where the future convertible will take over the new dashboard from the C-Class with the portrait screen of the multimedia system that had a minimum diagonal of 9.5 inches (optional 11.9 inches). Like the C-Class, the new convertible will be built on the MRA II platform and will have only 4-cylinder engines. The top versions will be AMG C 43 and C 63e (PHEV).
