Mercedes Benz CLA The new Mercedes CLA is a very important car for Mercedes not just in India but all over the world and we will be tracking all its developments all over the world. Latest news is that the production of the Mercedes-Benz CLA has started. The first model exclusively built in Kecskemét is now rolling off the production line as the plant’s second product along with the B-Class. On this occasion, plant manager Frank Klein took special pleasure in welcoming Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán and Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Daimler Board of Management and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, who both had also attended the plant’s grand opening in March 2012. In his speech, Dr. Dieter Zetsche explained the background of the product decision: “The CLA is based on the Concept Style Coupe, which we introduced last year. The most frequent comment by far was ‘Please put this car into series production.’ That’s precisely what we are doing now.” With respect to the excellent performance of the Kecskemét plant’s team, Zetsche said: “More than 40.000 B-Class vehicles built here prove that you know how to build great cars. You are doing a first-class job here at the plant.” Zetsche also expressed the company’s special thanks to all Hungarian partners in the political, administrative and social areas for the continuous, constructive partnership: “We’re on a good way to reach our common goal – Kecskemét is developing as a center of the Hungarian automotive industry.” Plant manager Frank Klein added: “The plant’s entire team can’t wait to get the CLA to our customers as perfectly as the B-Class cars we build in Kecskemét. We aim to follow up seamlessly on what we achieved in our first, very successful production year of 2012.” Last year, the Kecskemét plant had reached the first goal to produce more than 40.000 vehicles as planned, thus making an important contribution to the B-Class’ best-ever annual sales (worldwide sales of 145,649 units, more than 11 percent over the previous sales record in 2006). The CLA will be coming to India later this year and is one of the most anticipated launches of this year