Mercedes-Benz's electric CLA will use BYD LFP cells

Chinese media have reported that BYD has been chosen by Mercedes-Benz to supply the battery cells for its new electric CLA, which will be launched next year. The German manufacturer presented a first prototype of this mid-size sedan just a few days ago during the IAA Mobility event in Munich.

Published reports also mention that The cells supplied by BYD will feature lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) chemistry. A statement that is in line with what Mercedes-Benz itself said during the IAA Mobility, when the company assured that at least the entry-level version of the production version of the electric CLA would have a battery pack with LFP cells. However, at that time they did not specify who the supplier would be.

The new electric CLA will debut the Mercedes-Benz MMA modular platform, developed on the basis of an 800 V architecture for the company's mid-size models. An important peculiarity of the MMA platform is that it has been optimized from the beginning for use in electric vehicles, but it is also possible to integrate combustion engines into it.

Efficiency will be one of the hallmarks of the new electric CLA

As explained in Munich, the drive system of the future electric CLA has been developed by Mercedes-Benz engineers based on everything learned from the Vision EQXX prototype. This has made it possible for the German manufacturer to promise for its future electric sedan an energy consumption of only 12 kWh per hundred kilometers, with a WLTP range that will probably exceed 750 km. We should not, however, expect this surprising range in the entry-level version of the range, which is precisely the one that seems to be integrating BYD's LFP cells.

Some Chinese media are even more specific, claiming that Mercedes-Benz will use BYD's so-called Blade cells in the electric CLA. These types of cells are the ones we can currently find, for example, in the BYD Seal and are characterized by their elongated shape like a "blade", hence their name. This type of cells also allow the use of technology cell-to-pack, which makes it possible to install them directly in the battery pack, without the need to group them in modules. This makes it possible to make better use of the available space and therefore increase the amount of energy in the pack itself.