√Mercedes-Benz CLS to be axed this year, no replacement expected
The car that pioneered the ‘four-door coupe’ class – luxury sedans with sloping, coupe-inspired rooflines – will disappear from showroom floors from later this year.
The final examples of the Mercedes-Benz CLS sedan are due to roll off the production line in three months after nearly 20 years in showrooms, with no successor on the horizon.
Mercedes-Benz has advised production of the CLS is scheduled to end for all global markets this August, to make way for increased production of the new-generation E-Class sedan unveiled last month.
The current, third-generation CLS has been in production for five years – and the CLS badge will be axed just short of its 20th anniversary internationally next year (but the original car did not come to Australia until 2005).
Orders have already closed in Australia, though a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson told Drive “some agents [showrooms still] have stock of the current CLS”.
There is believed to be no replacement on the way, as the Mercedes-Benz looks to consolidate its petrol-powered model range in preparation for a new wave of electric vehicles.
The indirect successor to the CLS is the electric EQE, which has a similar coupe-styled roofline to its petrol-driven forebear – though in the name of cutting energy use and increasing driving range.
The CLS pioneered the modern ‘four-door coupe’ body style – a sedan with a sloping roofline meant to look like a coupe – in Europe, which has been copied by German rivals BMW and Audi, among other brands at lower and higher prices.
The best sales year for the CLS in Europe was 2006, the second full year of production for the original model, when 20,262 were reported as sold (according to CarSalesBase data).
But just 2155 were reported as sold in Europe in 2021 – down from 8428 in 2019, 12,600 in 2015, and 17,414 in 2011.
The CLS has traditionally been a niche seller compared to the E-Class it is based on, which reported a 21st-century sales high in Europe of 191,809 in 2003 – falling to about 55,000 in 2021 (via CarSalesBase).
In Australia, an average of 263 Mercedes-Benz CLS sedans have been sold since it arrived in 2005, reaching a peak of 540 sales in its first year – and only selling more than 400 examples in a calendar year four more times (2006, 2007, 2013, 2015).
In 2005 the E-Class outsold the CLS four to one; in 2022, when 55 CLS sedans and 347 E-Class sedans and wagons were reported as sold, the ratio was about six to one.
The current-generation ‘C257’ CLS arrived in Australia in 2018, in a choice of three model grades: the four-cylinder CLS350, six-cylinder CLS450, and high-performance six-cylinder AMG CLS53.
The CLS350 entry variant was cut from the line-up in 2020, before the CLS450 was axed alongside the arrival of a facelifted model at the end of 2021.
It compares to six variants of the previous-generation CLS in 2016 – including a V8-engined CLS63, and two variants of a CLS Shooting Brake wagon – and up to seven in 2013.
The post Mercedes-Benz CLS to be axed this year, no replacement expected appeared first on Drive.
Post a Comment for "√Mercedes-Benz CLS to be axed this year, no replacement expected"