Spied! Mercedes readying replacement for C- and E-Class coupes

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With everyone and their dachshund running towards crossovers and SUVs with open arms, it is understandable that even the mighty Mercedes is having trouble finding buyers for two-door coupes. Compound this with the fact they’ve a pair of not-too-dissimilar models in this niche, and you’ve a recipe for consolidation. If rumours are true, that’s exactly what is going to happen in the 2023 model year.

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Enter the CLE Coupe. This is the presumptive name for a slinky two-door which is expected to take the place of both C- and E-Class coupes/convertibles when the existing models reach the end of their lifecycle. Our spies have caught the vehicle you see here lapping the Nürburgring racetrack, wearing more than a light skiff of camouflage ahead of its expected debut in the next few months.

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Sources say a coupe and convertible of the CLE will be offered, which makes sense given the demand — however slight — from Mercedes customers for such vehicles. While the camo on this mule does a bang-up job of hiding the details, it does seem that it is wearing slimmer headlamps than the current C or E, while also incorporating something of a sportier stance. An AMG variant is all but assured at some point in the car’s life, so perhaps this is the genesis of that effort.

Sources suggest the CLE coupe and convertible will be built on the company’s MRA-2 platform, a set of modular bones which currently underpins everything from the current GLC all the way up to the bucks-deluxe S-Class. Smart money has the CLE offering powertrains equal to what’s found in today’s C, new for ’22, which include a 255 horsepower 2.0L inline-4 turbo with mild hybrid drive in this market and a 400hp AMG variant elsewhere. In Canada, the C 300 4MATIC sedan has an MSRP of $56,700. It wouldn’t surprise us in the least for a CLE to push its way well into the 60’s for its starting price.

Still, given the propensity for miserable bean counters to get their way, we’re glad any two-door coupes are being built at all. Expect to see the CLE bow sometime before the end of this year.