Benz sexes up the A-Class

The continuing success of Audi's TT has been such a frustration to Mercedes-Benz that it's about to build one of its own.

Sources have confirmed that Mercedes-Benz is working on a plan to deliver a sleek coupe to bring some youthful zing to the next generation of its MFA front-wheel drive hatchback architecture.

The current MFA plays host to three- and five-door versions of the A-Class, plus the five-door B-Class, the CLA sedan and Shooting Brake and the GLA crossover. The next generation will ditch the three-door A-Class because Mercedes thinks it can score just as many sales by targeting a younger audience with a practical coupe.

The coupe, which doesn't carry an internal badge name yet, would cycle into the model range in around 2019, a year after the fourth-generation A-Class, so its performance would have to balance out with European demands for a 95g/km CO2 maximum emissions rating right from the start.

Another key rival is the BMW 2 Series, which will almost certainly have an M2 before 2016 is half over, so expect any baby Benz coupe to have an AMG offering as well.

The current A 45, CLA 45 and GLA 45 AMGs all run the four-cylinder, 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol motor that is likely to be even hotter in its next iteration to take on Volkswagen's promised Golf R 400 and Audi's TT RS and TT RS Plus.

Given the transverse engine layout of the A-Class, basic versions of the coupe will drive through the front wheels, though the sportier models will adopt the all-wheel drive system made famous in the A 45 AMG.

The three-door version of the A-Class takes up a lot less than 10 per cent of the model's total volume, so Benz insiders suggest moving to a coupe wouldn't be a big risk to sales.

Benz plans for the coupe to be a 2+2, with a small, bench-like rear seat envisaged to be more useful as a storage area than a seating area. The rest of the cabin will borrow heavily from the next CLA's interior and dash layout.

By the time the coupe goes on sale, the A-Class it will borrow from so heavily will be available with a plug-in hybrid variant, though Benz insiders are unsure that drivetrain would be suitable for a sportier model.

The new model is designed to sit beneath the SLK, which is seen internally as a low-maintenance success story, and may be offered in a convertible format, too.

Key to the coupe's future is its architecture. The current MFA architecture was criticised internally for its lack of flexibility – which seems an odd thing to say about a platform that spawned four models.

However, the A-Class, the CLA and the GLA all shared the same wheelbase, which severely constrained the design and packaging programs, particularly for the CLA (which ended up longer than the contemporary C-Class on a far shorter wheelbase).

The second-generation MFA will benefit from that experience, with insiders expecting it to follow the Volkswagen Group's MQB architecture in offering a variety of wheelbases and track widths around a central core. This would allow greater diversity without too great a strain on manufacturing processes.

It is being developed as part of the joint venture with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, so it is also likely to sit beneath both of those brands along with at least one Infiniti model, the Q30, and probably the QX30 as well.