The all electric Mercedes AMG CLA 45 shooting brake

The electric era arrives at the doors of Mercedes AMG with a form that commands immediate attention. Raw cardinal red stretches across a five door shooting brake body, its vertical grille rendered in white bars, a kinetic signature that has come to define the marque’s compact performance lineage. The chassis sits lower than its petrol forebears, the suspension tuned for a machine that has fundamentally altered the relationship between weight and power.

Beneath the bonnet lies not a single engine but three: axial flux motors positioned at the front and rear axles, their collective force reaching 500 kilowatts, or 680 horsepower in the language of older machines. The acceleration read like science fiction when engineers first whispered the numbers. 2.7 seconds from standstill to 100 kilometres per hour. The sensation belongs to nothing else in the compact class. A 1,759 newton metres of torque distributes instantaneously through the fully variable AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all wheel drive system, which parcels grip between the axles and individually between the rear wheels with the precision of a mathematical expression.

The battery holds 94 kilowatt hours of usable energy, enough for more than 640 kilometres on the WLTP cycle. An 800-volt architecture commands charging powers up to 330 kilowatts, restoring eighty per cent capacity in a mere twenty two minutes. The consumption speaks of efficiency: 17.4 to 19.6 kilowatt hours per hundred kilometres, depending on specification. Carbon dioxide emissions read zero. AMG’s compact shooting brake has entered a new epoch, one written not in petrol fumes but in silent, relentless acceleration.

Imagery courtesy of Mercedes-AMG (@mercedesamg).