2019 Mercedes A class sedan "lowest drag of any car on sale" at Cd 0.22

[MetroMPG]

MB says: "lowest aerodynamic drag of all production vehicles worldwide"


Of course the pic above is of a performance variant, not the efficiency-oriented Cd 0.22 model.


The company also sought to reduce frontal area.

• almost complete panelling of the underbody
• extensive sealing in the front end (eg. headlights)
• rims and tyres also underwent aerodynamic fine-tuning
• front and rear wheel spoilers
• two-part grille shutter system

https://media.mercedes-benz.com/arti...1-eb97e97994c0

[gone-ot]

Two-part grille shutter system sounds interestingly unique?!?

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Two-part grille shutter system sounds interestingly unique?!?

My guess is it unblocks the intercooler, egr cooler and what ever other coolers it has before opening the main radiator shutters.

You otherwise can't really grill block a modern diesel as you might have three rows of heat exchangers in front of it that should remain open.

A typical Euro T'stat fully opens at 92*C whereas normal operating temp is 80*C (interestingly, mine seems to run hotter in winter). There would be plenty of scope for grill blocking if it weren't for all the auxiliary gubbins.

[freebeard]

• front and rear wheel spoilers

Most interesting to me.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Most interesting to me.

That just means wheel air dams; I'm not sure why every manufacturer seems to call them something different (Honda calls them "wheel strakes" in the Insight press packet).

[Hersbird]

The smoke picture from the above press release