Mercedes E-Class Coupe - It's official

The new Mercedes Benz E-Class Coupe.

Mercedes is in the middle of a model designation change. As we reported when we brought you unofficial pictures of the Mercedes E-Class Coupe, it looked like the CLK range was ready for the scrapheap, to be replaced by the E-Class Coupe. Which is now confirmed, with the release of the first official images and information.

So, goodbye CLK and hello E-Class Coupe (and very soon it will be goodbye Mercedes CL and hello, Mercedes S-Class Coupe as well).

The E-Class Coupe will officially launch at Geneva next month, and as you would expect, it is a subtle and understated car (until we see the E63AMG Coupe!). Choice of engines at launch will be the E500 Coupe with a 388bhp V8, the E350 CGI Coupe with a 292bhp petrol and the diesel of the range, the E350 CDI Coupe with a 231bhp V6.

Also available are a couple of new 4-pot engines – the E250CDI Coupe and the E250CGI Coupe, which manage to produce more torque and power whilst drinking up to 17% less fuel. AMG versions will come along later and also under consideration is a Hybrid version. All the models, except the E500 Coupe, will sport the BlueEFFICIENCY moniker.

Mercedes has decided that the E-Class Coupe should offer a fair bit of driver delight, so it gets a new sports suspension and adaptive dampers. That should mean good handling, but it will be interesting to see how hard the ride is.

The car gets a fair few gizmos, including a ‘Doze-Alert’ monitor, an emergency brake monitor and a system that pops the bonnet if you mow down a pedestrian to mitigate injuries.

On the inside the cabin is bigger than the old CLK, but the Coupe shape cuts in to rear headroom, so don’t expect to stuff your teenage sons in the back for long journeys. But they will be climatically comfortable, as the E-Class Coupe sports clever 3-Zone climate control. The car also gets a version of the Infotainment system found in the S-Class.

Pricing for the UK hasn’t been revealed yet, but we would expect the starting point to be around £31k.