A heat exchanger for cooling of charge air for an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle is provided. The heat exchanger has a preliminary stage, a main stage, and a compensating component. The preliminary stage has at least one preliminary stage fixed bearing base and a preliminary stage floating bearing base. The main stage has at least one main stage fixed bearing base and a main stage floating bearing base. In a heat transfer region of the main stage, at least one main stage channel for a main stage coolant is disposed. The compensating component is configured to compensate a position difference between corresponding components of the preliminary stage and the main stage, whereby the position difference is based on a thermally induced elongation difference between the at least one preliminary stage channel and the at least one main stage channel.