Mercedes “working on small sports coupe”

MERCEDES-BENZ reportedly is developing a small 2+2 sports coupe to take the fight up to the BMW 2 Series, Audi TT and Volkswagen Scirocco.

The potential replacement for the three-door A-Class available in Europe is said to be lower and wider than the current vehicle, injecting a large dose of passion into the design.

Australia’s Mercedes-Benz Asia-Pacific is not ruling out the new model, with public relations and product communications manager Jerry Stamoulis commenting: “We can certainly see the opportunities in the market for such a car.”

Britain’s Autocar reports that if the production go-ahead is granted, the coupe could go on sale as early as 2019, a year after the fourth-generation A-Class.

Logic says the coupe would be built on the new modular front-wheel drive platform being developed jointly by Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance, replacing the current MFA front-wheel-drive architecture that underpins the A-Class, B-Class, CLA and GLA.

As before, the new platform will get an all-wheel-drive alternative, meaning an AMG-enhanced flagship version of the coupe will be on the cards as a challenger to the Audi TT RS and BMW M2.

Autocar says Mercedes-Benz is mulling a roadster version of the new lift-back coupe, but that Mercedes insiders denied that it would replace the SLK.

Like the new platform, the vehicle is expected to get a range of new, more powerful four-cylinder engines in petrol and diesel formats. These are also being developed in league with Renault-Nissan, with Infiniti among the other likely beneficiaries.

The current A45 AMG packs a class-leading 265kW of power and 450Nm of torque from its turbo-charged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine.

We can only speculate about the coupe’s design, but we would not be surprised if elements of vehicles such as the AMG Vision Gran Turismo – shown at the 2013 Los Angeles motor show – surfaced on the new model.

Only the five-door hatchback A-Class is sold in Australia, meaning a lift-back coupe would open up new territory for the brand here.