“The time of creases is over,” said Gorden Wagener, design chief for Daimler AG. The impetus for this designer’s battle cry? The Mercedes-Benz Concept A Sedan just introduced at the Shanghai auto show. 

“With its perfect proportions and a sensual treatment of surfaces with reduced lines, it is the next milestone of ‘Sensual Purity’ and has the potential to introduce a new design era.”

The Concept A is about 180 inches long, 73.6 inches wide and 57.6 inches tall. That puts it within a few inches of the current CLA sedan, meaning this is likely a signal for where the next CLA’s design is headed. It has hints of the current AMG GT as well as the four-door AMG GT Concept from the Geneva auto show.

Like the GT Concept, the Concept A gets a Panamericana-style grille featuring chrome inserts, which looks to be the style going forward. The Concept A also has 20-inch light alloy wheels, a stretched hood with “Powerdomes” and (very concept-y) headlights with a UV coated structure that allows them to glow in different colors depending on the lights that are lit.

In back we see more concept taillights, a diffuser that’s supposed to emphasize the width of the vehicle and an integrated exhaust in dark chrome.

We don’t think the current CLA looks bad, but this is a much smoother, more flowing interpretation of the compact sedan, to be sure. And this cranberry color must be Mercedes’ new concept go-to hue, considering we saw it on the GT Concept, as well as a few others.

No word on powertrain possibilities or anything structural, but expect these styling cues to appear on production cars in the coming years.