At the Shanghai Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz and BMW launched a counterattack.

At the Shanghai Auto Show, the "BBA" brands have re - entered consumers' view.

This is an era of scarce product strength. Thanks to the leading progress in intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits, the sales volume of domestic independent brands has increased rapidly. In 2024, their market share has reached 60%. Whether in terms of sales volume or popularity, independent brands seem to have taken the upper hand.

In the first quarter of 2025, the installation rate of L2 - level and above assisted driving systems in new energy vehicles in China has exceeded 60%, which is a quite leading figure globally. Among them, the high - level assisted driving of the L2+ level that supports full - scenario navigation is at the forefront of the entire industry.

However, a series of accident risks caused by intelligent driving have begun to arouse consumers' concerns: Although "new" technologies have strong consumer appeal, are these "new" brands and "new" cars that change models every year really reliable?

Before the Shanghai Auto Show, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice regarding assisted driving, requiring automobile enterprises to fully conduct combined driving assistance test and verification, clarify the system function boundaries and safety response measures, and not conduct exaggerated and false publicity.

The latest regulations on power batteries were also officially implemented before the auto show. The technical requirements have been adjusted from providing an alarm five minutes before a fire or explosion to preventing fires and explosions.

From policies to consumers, quality and safety have become new concerns. Therefore, traditional luxury brands that have continuously emphasized "quality" and "safety" for the past century have re - entered the industry's view.

Compared with the 18 - month vehicle development cycle in China, the "BBA" brands represented by traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes - Benz and BMW still take 3 - 5 years to develop a new car, which has led to the temporary "lag" of traditional luxury brands in terms of intelligence.

However, at this Shanghai Auto Show, the "BBA" brands finally launched a counter - attack. In addition to quickly catching up with the intelligent performance of independent brands, traditional luxury brands have also come up with new aces.

Mercedes - Benz: Intelligence has caught up, and the gearbox is the secret

At the auto show, Mercedes - Benz launched a series of new cars, including the new AMG GT63 and the Vision V concept car in the MPV series. But what deserves the most attention is the long - wheelbase version of the all - electric CLA, which will be launched and delivered this year. This is Mercedes - Benz's "smartest" product to date.

Cooperating with Momenta, a leading domestic intelligent driving supplier, Mercedes - Benz has launched a high - level intelligent driving function based on the end - to - end technology route on the all - electric CLA. With the help of cameras and millimeter - wave radars, it has achieved full - scenario assisted driving functions from parking space to parking space, covering complex road conditions such as U - turns, roundabout passages, and on - and off - ramps.

On the other hand, the all - electric CLA is the first to be equipped with Mercedes - Benz's self - developed MB.OS operating system.

Compared with the previous Mercedes - Benz in - car infotainment systems with limited functions and difficult Chinese dialogue, the new - generation operating system uses the voice recognition capabilities of Chinese local suppliers and the Doubao AI large - model from ByteDance, enabling a smoother and more diverse Chinese - using experience.

But what is more worthy of attention on the all - electric CLA is Mercedes - Benz's control over the cruising range and power consumption of all - electric vehicles.

Let's first look at the data of leading competitors in the industry: Under Huawei's Hongmeng Smart Mobility, the Zhijie S7, also a B - class all - electric coupe, has a CLTC cruising range of 855 kilometers and uses a ternary lithium battery with a capacity of 100 kWh.

Tesla, the leader in power consumption in the industry, also has an all - electric B - class coupe, the Model 3. Its four - wheel - drive long - range version weighs 1.8 tons and has a power consumption of 12.5 kWh per 100 kilometers.

The all - electric CLA from Mercedes - Benz has achieved a cruising range of 866 kilometers under CLTC conditions with an 85 - kWh ternary lithium battery. And with a vehicle weight of over 2.1 tons, it has achieved a power consumption of only 10.9 kWh per 100 kilometers.

Mercedes - Benz's secret is the gearbox. According to the official statement, the all - electric CLA is equipped with a two - speed gearbox that supports the switching of transmission ratios between 11:1 and 5:1. This gearbox has helped Mercedes - Benz reduce the use of at least 15 kWh of power batteries, corresponding to a cost savings of about 10,000 yuan.

A person engaged in gearbox R & D told 36Kr that there is no absolute technical barrier for this type of gearbox, and domestic new energy vehicle enterprises can also purchase the same products. "If this two - speed gearbox is produced locally in China, the cost is only about three or four thousand yuan. The one used by Mercedes - Benz is imported, so the cost is higher."

Even around 2019, mainstream gearbox suppliers had actually launched mature products. But so far, only a very small number of models are equipped with them.

"The gearbox used in electric off - road vehicles has relatively single functions and is relatively easy to operate as a whole. The most difficult one is the energy - consumption - type gearbox like that in the CLA, which requires a lot of joint R & D and testing,"

"In addition to the basic transmission ratio change, the CLA can also achieve a rear - axle disconnect structure. It is considered very breakthrough in the industry that all this can be mass - produced in a car at this price range," a senior industry insider told 36Kr.

After the multi - speed gearbox is added, the entire vehicle's transmission structure needs to be redesigned and tuned, and a more complex software is needed to ensure the smooth operation of the vehicle during gear - shifting intervals. At the same time, the vehicle calibration project will also be more complex.

"It takes at least three years or even longer for R & D, testing, and verification to make good use of the gearbox. This is definitely a project that requires time," a vehicle enterprise R & D personnel told 36Kr.

For new vehicle enterprises that have never been involved in gearbox R & D and use and are pursuing a reduction in vehicle R & D cycles, this is undoubtedly a difficult challenge. But for Mercedes - Benz, this is exactly its strength. As a luxury brand that grew up in the era of fuel vehicles, Mercedes - Benz is good at such systematic projects.

And this is just the beginning. As the first product of Mercedes - Benz's MMA platform, the CLA's main role is to showcase Mercedes - Benz's latest electrification technology to the outside world. In subsequent new models, Mercedes - Benz may present even better performance after iterative improvements.

The "old" technology from the fuel - vehicle era has helped Mercedes - Benz gain new technological discourse power in the electrification era.

BMW: The cockpit has highlights, and driving control technology remains the core

Different from Mercedes - Benz and Audi, which are eager to make progress in intelligent driving, BMW's intelligent focus is on the cockpit.

In March this year, BMW officially announced that it would cooperate with Alibaba. The new - generation BMW models in the Chinese market will use Alibaba's Tongyi large - model. Cooperating with local suppliers has enabled BMW to quickly catch up with the progress of installing AI large - models in vehicles in the Chinese market.

Of course, BMW has also injected new technologies into this new cockpit system, such as the screens. Nowadays, large screens have become the standard for both fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles. The practice of using large screens to replace the center console decoration has made the design differences between automobile products smaller and smaller.

BMW's new cockpit uses two new "screen designs". One is at the bottom of the windshield, where a visual projection screen over 1 meter long and over 40 inches in size replaces the instrument panel; the other is an irregularly - shaped center console screen tilted 17.5° towards the driver's seat.

The projection instrument panel is more in line with the "cone - shaped" structure of human vision when driving, and the screen tilted towards the driver is more convenient for the driver to operate. BMW's intelligent strategy still serves the brand's driving core.

The new - generation models also adhere to driving control as the product focus. Before the auto show, BMW's new - generation concept car carried out an extreme climbing challenge at a 54° slope.

The new - generation concept car is equipped with a distributed four - motor system, which can output a maximum wheel - side torque of 18,000 Nm. The active aerodynamics system can provide a maximum down - force of 1.2 tons.

Based on the new electronic and electrical architecture of the new - generation series, BMW has developed a driving control brain that integrates power and chassis. The computing speed of the vehicle's power and chassis systems has increased by 10 times, and the signal transmission delay has been shortened to 5 milliseconds.

The reason why it can complete such an extreme climbing challenge is that the 12 sets of sensors on the concept car can complete the ground slope scanning within 0.02 seconds, synchronously increase the down - force of the aerodynamics components, and the damping coefficient of the suspension system.

"Even if domestic brands have the same hardware configuration, it is difficult for them to achieve the same effect as BMW in the short term," an industry insider told 36Kr.

In addition, through the tuning of BMW engineers, this system can make the rear wheels deflect up to 8° in the opposite direction when cornering at high speed. Simply put, the vehicle can corner at a higher speed without tipping over, and the performance and stability of the entire vehicle have been qualitatively improved.

An industry insider told 36Kr that this is basically a technology used only in F1 racing cars, which has extremely high requirements for the extreme performance of both hardware and software. "If BMW can mass - produce this technology, it will really break through the limits of driving again."

In an era when the industry is keen on making driving intelligent, BMW has chosen to use intelligent technology to improve the driving experience. While domestic brands are chasing horsepower magic, BMW understands that its advantage actually lies in refined tuning and control.

Under the spotlight of the Shanghai Auto Show, Mercedes - Benz's gearbox technology and BMW's driving control innovation are all reminding consumers that century - old brands still have irreplaceable advantages. However, independent brands, which are closer to users and have a faster iteration speed, do have significant advantages in product strength and cost - performance.

The breakthrough battle of independent brands will not stop, and the counter - attack of luxury brands has just begun. In the end, this competition may point to the same direction: A truly luxurious car needs both the edge brought by intelligence and the reliability brought by quality and engineering systems.