Jan 19, 2026 – 5.00am
Here’s the widely reported story: Mercedes-Benz planned for its next-gen small car, the CLA, to be exclusively electric but suffered cold feet when the EV market slowed.
It then hastily developed an internal combustion version with a mild hybrid system. It was forced to keep the same body for time and cost reasons, but had to completely redesign everything underneath because the original CLA was a dedicated EV design built on a so-called skateboard platform.
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