The A-Class: leading Mercedes' new generation compact car offensive

A benchmark for the compact segment

Two years since the award-winning Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class held its world premiere at Auto Shanghai 2011, the A-Class has come full circle.

At the upcoming Auto Shanghai 2013, the recently-launched all-new A-Class will make its highly anticipated China debut.

"As we roll out more models from our next generation compact car family, we'd like to see more and more Chinese customers come to recognize Mercedes-Benz as a cool brand," said Nicholas Speeks, president & CEO of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Co. "We believe that the all-new A-Class will appeal to the young and young at heart given its ultra-expressive character."

Radical look

As a change of pace, the all-new A-Class was not developed based its predecessor. Rather, Mercedes-Benz engineers and designers started with a clean slate, a revolutionary deviation from standard practice at Mercedes-Benz.

The A-Class' radical design has already earned it a number of awards since its world premiere at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show, including the title of "Most Beautiful Car of the Year 2012" via votes by more than 100,000 people in 52 countries.

The A-Class' modern look is a ground-breaking interpretation of Mercedes-Benz' style philosophy; the car represents a serious departure from Mercedes-Benz' existing product lines, but still maintains the high attention to detail and premium quality that is expected from the automaker.

The feature lines carving out the A-Class' side profile create a play of light through constant interaction between concave and convex surfaces. The dynamic "dropping line" in particular is a major design feature that contributes to the vehicle's sculptural, muscular look.

The exterior of the A-Class has also been designed with performance in mind, with this new Mercedes-Benz model series boasting a best-in-class drag coefficient of 0.27.

A number of details were taken directly from the Concept A-Class, including the dazzling diamond grille featured on the A 260 Sport.