2027 Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 4MATIC+ EQ

AMG.EA Compact

Tri-Motor Electric (AWD)

Three axial-flux motors, one at the front and two at the rear, each rear unit driving its own wheel. That layout lets the car send different amounts of torque to each rear tyre on the same corner, so it turns by pushing rather than by dragging a brake, and it does it silently.

This is the first fully electric car to wear the 45 badge, a nameplate built for two decades on hand-assembled four-cylinder turbo engines, and the change is total: AMG kept the name and threw away the recipe. It is built on the 800-volt compact architecture Mercedes introduced with the standard CLA, with AMG's own motors, cooling and software layered on top.

• Axial-flux motors are shorter and lighter than the usual radial design, which is how three of them fit at all.
• The front motor can decouple on a steady cruise, so the car quietly becomes a rear-driver whenever all-wheel drive is not earning its keep.
• The power it can hold indefinitely is well below its peak, which is the honest reason a second hard launch does not feel like the first.
• It pipes an engine-like sound and a matching physical tremor through the car, an explicit attempt to give an electric AMG the theatre of a combustion one.