article extract...The result: there will be two battery options...

article extract...

The result: there will be two battery options in the CLA (for the time being).

Mercedes will use LFP cells in the entry-level version to offer a lower price. The larger version for the maximum range (750 kilometres is the target) will use NMC cells with a silicon-containing anode – a first at Mercedes.

Both battery packs are the same size and weigh roughly the same. With the higher energy density, the NMC pack has 85 kWh and the LFP battery 58 kWh – both are net values, i.e. the actual usable energy content.

Mercedes states an energy density of 450 Wh/l for the lithium iron phosphate chemistry and 680 Wh/l for the NMC battery.
That is 30 per cent more than before for the latter battery, and the gravimetric energy density has increased by 20 per cent compared to the current battery generations. And the whole thing is 30 per cent cheaper – Mercedes is not giving the absolute values here.
Battery developer Keller was also unwilling to comment on the exact proportion of silicon. When asked repeatedly, he only let slip with a wink that it is “less than 50 per cent” – but he would not comment whether it was five per cent, ten or 49.9 per cent. His colleague Franz Nietfeld from Cell Development added that they are already working on high-silicon anodes in the laboratory – but that these are not yet ready for series production.