The production of Mercedes-Benz pure electric CLA is postponed due to software issues. | Exclusive from 36Kr.

Mercedes-Benz's powerful transformation in the Chinese market has encountered the first obstacle.

36Kr learned from the industry department that recently, in a notice, Mercedes-Benz stated that due to issues in software development, the production time of the new pure electric long-wheelbase CLA of Mercedes-Benz has been postponed to August this year. Originally, Mercedes-Benz planned to put this pure electric new vehicle into production in April 2025.

Regarding this news, 36Kr verified with Mercedes-Benz, and Mercedes-Benz responded:

"The new pure electric long-wheelbase CLA exclusively for China will be put into production in 2025. We are actively conducting comprehensive tests and promoting the preparation work for the production ramp-up as planned to ensure that this new product can meet the needs of Chinese customers."

The pure electric CLA is a coupe that Mercedes-Benz plans to launch in 2025. Behind this new vehicle is the new modular platform MMA developed by Mercedes-Benz specifically for compact and mid-size vehicles.

This is an architecture that supports both gasoline and electric vehicles, and can be used for both electric vehicles and internal combustion engines. In electric models, the highlights of MMA are Mercedes-Benz's independently developed EDU2.0 electric drive unit and 800V electrical architecture.

As 36Kr previously reported, Mercedes-Benz will apply its self-developed operating system MB.OS on the new platform to provide a new visual design and more intelligent in-car voice services. The pure electric CLA will also launch an L2+ level intelligent driving function including urban pilot in the Chinese market.

The pure electric CLA is the display of Mercedes-Benz's latest electrification and intelligentization technology, and it is also a new round of attack after its in-depth understanding of the Chinese electric vehicle market. Due to the setback in software research and development, the listing plan of CLA has been postponed.

Insiders told 36Kr that it is the software development of the electronic and electrical architecture that has problems. This seems to be a bottleneck problem commonly faced by new BBA vehicles.

Audi Q6L, A5L, and Porsche Macan EV developed based on the Volkswagen PPE platform have all been postponed to varying degrees due to software development problems in the electronic and electrical architecture.

Traditional fuel vehicle companies are not proficient in the development of electronic and electrical architectures.

Today, with the transformation of the automotive industry, electrification and intelligentization require vehicles to move towards a centralized architecture, where the control center uniformly issues instructions to components such as wheels and chassis. Traditional enterprises adopt a distributed architecture, where suppliers provide controllers for their respective parts, and the main engine factory does not need to carry out such software development.

Therefore, very few main engine factories have the development capability of the control center, and the unification of interfaces and data between a large number of suppliers also requires multiple rounds of negotiations. All of this is not easy for traditional vehicle companies. Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Porsche are facing such problems.

Moreover, the MMA platform built by Mercedes-Benz, and the PPE platform built by Audi and Porsche are both platforms that support both gasoline and electric vehicles. To take into account the separate operation of high-voltage power batteries and electric drives, and low-voltage power supplies and internal combustion engines, this poses a double problem for traditional enterprises that are not proficient in electronic and electrical architectures.

If BBA wants to continue to be the pioneer in electrification, it must learn from the pain and cultivate its independent research and development capabilities from the root, and improve the transformation speed and efficiency from the system and institution.

Volkswagen's approach is to cooperate with the domestic new energy vehicle company Xiaopeng to jointly develop the electronic and electrical architecture. As 36Kr previously reported, after the establishment of the cooperation, Xiaopeng almost took over the EE architecture development of Volkswagen's pure electric vehicles in China.

Volkswagen also assigned hundreds of employees to Xiaopeng to learn the development of the electronic and electrical architecture. Xiaopeng has arranged a work area for them at the headquarters, and some employees will be stationed here for 3 years.

Mercedes-Benz has established a digital research and development center in Shanghai and formed a research and development team of several hundred people to participate in the development of the electronic and electrical architecture, as well as the research and development of applications such as the intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving.

BBA and other luxury brands are undergoing a full-scale transformation, but there is still a time lag with the market: The 800V high-voltage technology of the Mercedes-Benz MMA platform and the Volkswagen PPE platform has been popularized in the Chinese market in 2024. In 2025, when BBA presents the 800V technology, independent brands have already rushed to a new competition point.

The delayed production has pushed Mercedes-Benz's pure electric CLA into a more intense competition.

This year, Hongmeng Zhixing, which conquered the No. 1 sales in the 500,000-yuan market with the Wenjie M9, will launch the Zunjie S800 at the million-yuan price level next year, further attacking the user mindset in the luxury market where Mercedes-Benz is located. On the other hand, the Wenjie M8, which is cheaper than the Wenjie M9, will become the new sales pillar of the Wenjie family.

The second product of Xiaomi Automobile, YU7, has been officially announced to be launched in June-July. The Mercedes-Benz CLA, which will be launched later, will inevitably be impacted by the traffic of Xiaomi Automobile, which has "national popularity".

2025 is still a big year for product launches in the Chinese automotive market. The Mercedes-Benz pure electric CLA, which is postponed to be listed in the second half of the year, and other luxury brand models will face more strong competitors.

The speed of product renewal in the Chinese automotive market is continuously accelerating. Pushing new cars with the original development progress of 5-8 years is not in line with the market development speed. The core of BBA's electrification transformation is still "acceleration".

How to quickly make up for the development capabilities and launch new cars that consumers trust and love will be an important proposition that these traditional luxury brands need to consider.