Mercedes CLS 250 CDI, E 400 cabriolet launch on March 25, 2015

Mercedes has announced that it will launch a facelift for the CLS, but only in diesel guise. The CLS is essentially a stylish, four-door coupe version of the E-class and will be sold here as a CBU, slotting in between the E and the S-class.

The new CLS 250 CDI is expected to come with the same diesel motor that powers the Mercedes E 250 CDI and the ML 250 CDI in India. This motor is a 2143cc unit good for 201bhp and 50.98kgm. The updated CLS gets minor styling tweaks and a grille similar to the A-class. The pre-facelift version was only available with a petrol motor and wasn’t as popular as the first-generation car which came with both petrol and diesel engines. Another reason for the popularity of the first-gen CLS in India was the fact that back then, its German rivals, BMW and Audi did not have a direct competitor, whereas the second-gen CLS is aimed squarely at the Audi A7 and BMW 6-series Gran Coupe.

Mercedes will also launch the E-class convertible on the same day. We had broken the news last year that the new E 400 Cabriolet will be a part of Mercedes’ new products for India in 2015.

The Mercedes E 400 Cabriolet’s 3.0-litre, six-cylinder (V6) turbo-petrol motor produces 328bhp and a good 48.9kgm of torque that’s routed via a nine-speed automatic gearbox. The E 400 cabriolet will, according to Mercedes, do a 0-100kph stint in just 5.3 seconds. The predecessor of the E-class convertible, the E 350 was sold with a naturally-aspirated petrol motor and was based on the pre-facelift E-class.

It comes with a fully-electric soft-top that can be opened or closed at speeds up to 40kph and will be packed with features including Mercedes’ latest COMAND interface.