Mercedes loves to remind us that it invented the four-door coupe with the launch of the CLS back in 2003. Based on the E-Class platform, its design may have been replicated by other manufacturers ever since, but its significance for creating a new segment can't be downplayed, combining the elegance of a coupe with the practicality of a sedan. First revealed at last year's LA Auto Show, the curvaceous CLS is now entering its third generation with a sleek new design.

Production of the new four-dour coupe has now begun at the automaker's Sindelfingen facility near Stuttgart. Supervising its production is factory's Site Manager, Michael Bauer and Chairman of the Mercedes Sindelfingen Works Council Ergun Lumali seen posing next to the first CLS to roll off the assembly line. "The Sindelfingen team has once again demonstrated its motivation and many years of experience in the successful start-up of the new CLS," said Bauer. "The start-up of the third generation of the vehicle in series production shows the flexibility that characterizes our production at the Sindelfingen plant".The 2019 CLS is being produced on the same assembly line as the E-Class sedan and wagon.

State-of-the-art digital production technologies are used at the facility, such as a clever system that can automatically detect the screwdrivers required by an employee. To speed up the building process, the worker also has direct access to a vehicle's order data and other information. Mercedes' Sindelfingen facility, which has more than 25,000 employees, is also where the S-Class Sedan, Coupe, and Cabriolet, Mercedes-Maybach, and AMG GT are manufactured. Around 200 vehicles a day are delivered at the Mercedes-Benz customer center next to the factory.

Once again, the 2019 Mercedes CLS is based on the Mercedes MRA platform which underpins the current C-Class, E-Class, and GLC-Class, and features a sleeker shape than its predecessor and a raft of new driver assistance systems taken from its larger S-Class sibling such as Active Steering, Brake, and Speed Limit Assists, and Active Distance Control. The third-generation Mercedes CLS will be available in a variety of flavors, including two gasoline and two diesel units with power outputs ranging from 282 hp in the 400d, to 456 hp in the range-topping AMG 53.