With the autumn launch of the all-new all-electric CLA, Mercedes-Benz’s intelligent transformation in the Chinese market will face its first real-world test.
On September 23, Mercedes-Benz and ByteDance announced the signing of a memorandum to upgrade their strategic cooperation.
This collaboration covers several key business areas, including intelligent assisted driving, smart cockpits, intelligent R&D, digital marketing, and customer operations.
In the smart cockpit domain, Mercedes-Benz plans to integrate ByteDance’s AI capabilities into its evolving cockpit platform to deliver personalized in-car experiences. The two parties will explore multimodal large models and generative AI to more seamlessly integrate entertainment, navigation, and lifestyle services into the driving scenario.
Regarding digital marketing, Mercedes-Benz will leverage ByteDance’s content ecosystem and media platforms to enhance customer interaction experiences.
The first outcome of this collaboration—the all-new all-electric CLA, the first mass-produced Mercedes-Benz model equipped with ByteDance’s Doubao large language model—is set to officially launch this autumn.
Mercedes-Benz has consistently increased its investments in intelligent technologies in recent years.
Over the past five years, Mercedes-Benz’s total R&D investment in China has reached 10.5 billion yuan, establishing the most comprehensive R&D team outside of Germany.
Currently, Mercedes-Benz’s R&D team in China exceeds 2,000 people. The Shanghai team, leading digital experience development, completed the development and achieved mass production of the highway NOA system in less than 12 months.
Mercedes-Benz’s move to strengthen cooperation with ByteDance comes amidst market challenges it faces.
In the second quarter of 2025, Mercedes-Benz’s global sales decreased by 9% year-over-year, with sales in the Chinese market falling 19% year-over-year during the quarter. In the first half of the year, Mercedes-Benz’s cumulative sales in China reached 293,200 vehicles, a 14% decrease compared to the same period last year.
Simultaneously, the Mercedes-Benz Group’s profit margin for the first half of the year was just 5.3%, indicating severe profit pressure. In response, the company is adjusting its product strategy, planning to develop more affordable compact cars to expand its sales base.
As the first Mercedes-Benz model equipped with the Doubao model, the all-new all-electric CLA carries significant expectations for the brand’s ambitions in the intelligent technology sector.
Based on Mercedes-Benz’s new MMA architecture, the vehicle supports 800V high-voltage fast charging and plans to mass-produce a mapless, end-to-end intelligent driving system. Additionally, it features the Qualcomm 8295 and NVIDIA Orin X chips to support its smart cockpit and intelligent driving functions.
With the autumn launch of the all-new all-electric CLA, Mercedes-Benz’s intelligent transformation in the Chinese market will face its first real-world test.
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