I couldn't help but roll my eyes when Mercedes-Benz first unveiled the all-electric CLA last year. What on Earth were those 142 illuminated stars doing on the grille? The automaker has admitted the industry had gone too far with giant screens and fewer buttons, so why did the new CLA still come with a humongous, pillar-to-pillar “Superscreen?"
From the photos alone, I wasn't convinced that the CLA could be the electric hit Mercedes needs right now. The German automaker has been losing ground to increasingly competitive Chinese rivals, and its first wave of EQ-branded EVs with their computer-mouse-like designs didn't exactly take off. The CLA, then, is meant to be a fresh start, the first in a new generation of software-defined, higher-tech EVs.
