The invention relates to a heat exchanger provided for heating purposes, particularly for a motor vehicle, comprising: a number of parallel pipes, at least one electric heating device (4), which is mounted each time between two adjacent pipes, and comprising a number of fin elements (5) situated between each pair of adjacent pipes and between each heating device (4) and the pipes adjacent thereto. In order to be able to better control the power absorption of the heating devices (4), each heating device (4) comprises two separately controllable heating sections (6, 7). One heating section (6) is placed on one side (8) of the heating device (4) facing one adjacent pipe, whereas the other heating section (7) is placed on an opposite side (9) of the heating device (4) facing the other adjacent pipe.