More than 100,000 CLA models reached their owners, starting April 2013, when the model was launched on the market. Altogether, 800,000 compact cars from the new family based on MFA platform have been sold and both the Germans and the Americans are the main clients.
Part of strategy ”Mercedes-Benz 2020”, Mercedes-Benz has started the most extensive model initiative in the history of the brand. The three pointed star label is trying to keep the present customers, but is also targeting new ones. The marketing strategy seems to work, as 100,000 CLAs have already been sold since April 2013. One in four CLAs has an American driver behind the steering wheel, as it is the first time when a Mercedes is sold under 30,000 USD across the Atlantic. Eight out of ten Mercedes owners previously drove a car from the competition. The Mercedes is also targeting younger customers: the average age of the CLA drivers is 45, ten years younger than the American customers across the full range. Introducing the AMG version of the CLA into the American market might be a reason for it. The CLA 45 AMG was like a magnet for the Americans, contributing to a 20% sales growth over 2013.
Compact range for USA is completed by the B-Class Electric Drive and GLA. The B-Class Electric Drive, that will only reach Europe by the end of 2014, joined the CLA in mid-July. The GLA will also be on sale in the US starting September.
Outside USA, Western Europe is also an important market for the Mercedes-Benz, Germany and Great Britain in particular. In Great Britain, where the the compact coupe has been on sale there since mid-2013, 50% of the customers previously drove other brands.
The CLA is manufactured in Kecksemet, Hungary since the beginning of 2013. The Hungarian plant also builds the B-Class and from the second half of 2015, the fifth member of the compact car family, the CLA Shooting Brake, will see the light of day.
