Carmakers dream of futuristic, super-powered EVs capable of enormous feats of power and filled with exotic materials and extreme styling. Those aspirational vehicles are meant to drag our current everyday car design into the future. The third-generation Mercedes-Benz CLA is a great example of this process, coming almost unchanged from the CLA concept shown in 2023 and using technology first described in the Vision EQXX. Riding on a new electric-first platform, it's a dream car made manifest in the real
world. Every element of the vehicle is enhanced, from its best in class drag coefficients all the way down to its aerodynamically designed wheels. If any car can make a luddite a believer in EVs, it might be this one.
Full disclosure: Mercedes invited us to Stuttgart to see the reveal of the Concept AMG GTXX with a stop over in Copenhagen to drive the all-electric CLA. It flew us out, put us up and fed us, plus supplied a CLA250+ and CLA350 for an evening and morning of driving.
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What Moves It
The electric CLA comes in two flavors, the rear-wheel-drive CLA250+ and the all-wheel-drive CLA350 4Matic, both of which officially have a "with EQ Technology" moniker added to the end of their names. Both ride on Mercedes' new MMA modular platform, with an 800-volt electric architecture and a battery pack with 85 kWh of usable capacity. The CLA250+ boasts a 492-mile range on the European WLTP cycle while the CLA350 gets slightly less. The Environmental Protection Agency has not yet put those numbers into freedom units however, but expect a range of around 400 miles. There is also a Europe-only 58-kWh battery option that the U.S. won't get, given our fixation on road trips and long range.
The CLA250+ gets one permanently excited synchronous motor over the back axle that puts out 268 horsepower and 247 pound-feet of torque, while the CLA350 comes with a motor on each axle totaling 349 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque. Both CLAs have a two-speed transmission for the rear motor for better efficiency at highway speeds, and the CLA350 engages its front motor to help out during harder driving dynamics over 60 mph. Both CLAs top out at 130 mph, with the 250+ hitting 60 mph in 6.6 seconds and the 350 needing only 4.8 seconds to reach 60 mph.
This innovative new platform is thanks to a new mixture of silicon oxide with graphite and comes with a ton of pros; it's lighter, more energy dense and less wasteful. It also allows for greater thermal control, which goes a long way to extending the life of the battery and keeping those electrons in play.
Glowing Problems
But as with all cutting edge technology, there is a caveat — mainly that it'll be pretty tough to find a charger in the U.S. that can early adopters of the electric CLA will be able to handle. The first batch of CLAs coming to the U.S. will only be able to fast-charge at 800-volt stations, with no capability for 400-volt chargers. CLAs brought to the U.S. starting next spring will have a built-in 400-volt adapter, but initial customers will be out of luck. Mercedes thinks only a few hundred cars will be sold this year with this omission but it is not exactly the kind of thing you want to hear when shopping for a new, technologically advanced introductory luxury EV. If you manage to find an ultra-fast charger capable of handling the 800-volt load then the CLA can add 201 miles in just 10 minutes, with a maximum of 320 kW.
The CLA does comes with both a J1772 port for Level 1 AC charging and an NACS port, which will allow the CLA to hook up to chargers in the U.S. including Tesla Superchargers, but even most of those only put out 400 volts. Some Supercharges can handle larger loads but they are not the norm. Electrify America also offers some chargers that can handle an 800-volt juice transfer, but the lack of infrastructure means those lightning fast charging times are just not in the cards most of the time for most drivers. Mercedes plans to install 10,000 higher-powered charging points by 2030 and upgrade thousands more already in the states, but that's still five years away. 800-volts is quickly becoming the standard in EVs, so charging outlets have a lot of catching up to do.
Beginning in model year 2027, the CLA also be available with an internal combustion powertrain that combines a turbocharged inline-4 engine with a 48-volt hybrid system. So if you truly fear the electron, you can still get all the mind-boggingly high-tech features with a side of gasoline. Hybrid owners will be able to tool around town in pure electric mode, leaving the ICE engine powered off until hitting speeds of 60 mph, much like the second motor on the CLA350.
On The Inside...
Mercedes calls this CLA the cleverest Mercedes ever. It's the brand's the first car to operate on the new Mercedes-Benz Operating System (MB.OS), which use AI-enhanced systems running on a onboard supercomputer capable of over-the-air updates. MB.OS runs everything from the infotainment and advanced driver-assistance systems, to comfort features and charging. Mercedes breaks it down into three categories: MBUX, which is the user experience and infotainment system; MB.Drive, the driver-assist features; and MB.Charge which, you guessed it, controls charging.
We didn't really get to experience charging, as the vehicles provided came with plenty of electrons for our jaunts around Copenhagen and out to the Danish countryside, but the other systems controlled by Mercedes' supercomputer car brain were easy for us to access on our hour-and-a-half long drive routes.
First, the new MBUX system is designed entirely in-house and challenges every notion that automakers should just stick to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. It legitimately does not suck. There's a new pillar-to-pillar display with a 10.3-inch gauge cluster and 14-inch central touchscreen, and an optional 14-inch touchscreen for the front passenger. If you don't get the passenger display there's a still-attractive panel of piano black covered in an illuminated Mercedes star pattern. The smooth-to-the-touch glass displays use graphics from the Unity Game Engine that are beautifully rendered and immediately responsive. Owners can totally tailor their infotainment experience on these screens via the app mode view, and the passenger display comes with games and video streaming services to keep your favorite passenger princess engaged.
MBUX also includes the famous Mercedes Virtual Assistant. Now in its fourth generation, the little glowing Mercedes-Benz badge avatar on the infotainment screen is a well loved feature for the brand's enthusiasts. The Virtual Assistant now incorporates AI from ChatGPT4o with Microsoft Bing search results, giving it a broader base to answer both pointless questions and actually useful inquiries, like navigating to charging stations or points of interest along routes. Google Gemini also allows the virtual assistant to answer navigation-related questions by accessing Google Map information. This makes the CLA the first car to integrate multiple AI sources into one vehicle.
Drivin' Me Crazy
The Virtual Assistant can recognize its drivers' emotional state and learns more about driver's preferences the more it is used, making it a truly powerful tool — and maybe a little creepy in the long run. It didn't always work perfectly when I engaged the Assistant on the drive, but I was asking it detailed questions about the history surrounding Copenhagen because I am a nerd. Even if the answers aren't always perfect when first starting out it's legitimately fun to ask your car silly questions like it's the ship's computer in "Star Trek." Mercedes describes conversations with the MBUX Virtual Assistant as comparable to "a friend and has short-term memory," and I find that hilarious. My friends have useless knowledge about serial killers and folk-punk song references and know less about local weather reports or points of interest along driving routes than the MBUX virtual assistant, so maybe it's actually slightly better than flesh-and-blood friends.
On the inside the new CLA is pure Mercedes. Both the cloth and leather interiors feel rich and high-quality with open-pore wood and brushed aluminum gracing the doors and dashboard. One interior scheme uses anodized Gold Anthracite to make the floating center console and doors look like they're covered in decorative paper. The seats are comfy and cozy, and one of the CLA350's open for testing came with gray seats with brilliant bright electric lime green accents on the edge panels of the seats, a remarkably youthful look for Mercedes. It definitely makes sense on this entry-level luxury vehicle to give it an edge inside, and it definitely spoke to the young buyer still lurking somewhere inside my aging carcass. A giant panoramic sunroof comes standard and gives the interior one of the most expansive feelings I've ever experienced in a sedan. There's just so much light and visibility in this car it is the closest you can come to the feel of a literal greenhouse.
Mercedes is pretty proud of its new multifunction steering wheel. While it is certainly an improvement over the old steering wheel, it's still not really up to snuff. I found my thumb constantly hitting the volume control while at a normal ten-and-two driving position, leading to a sudden and shocking blast of music. While it was easy to accidentally activate the volume, it was weirdly tougher to use it intentionally. To turn the volume down on the steering wheel I had to get the button to engage with a haptic click that, instead of reassuring, felt cheap and plasticy.
On The Outside...
The production CLA carries over its jelly bean–shaped bona fides from the concept car unveiled in 2023. I really like the A-shaped grille in person, which features 142 individually illuminated LED chrome-effect stars that create a distinctive brand signature. Everyone loves the illuminated star badge, so 142 of them is exactly 142 times as fun. That's just math.
These little guys go a long way towards making the CLA feel like a luxurious, futuristic car, along with the star-shaped headlights and brake lights. I especially like the sporty little lip on the back end helping out the class-leading drag coefficient. It has some Toyota Corolla vibes, but crash testing and aerodynamics being what they are, the car's overall shape still manages to be sleek and sporty.
On The Road
There's a lot of talk of how to make EVs connect emotionally with drivers without things like RPMs, gear changes and roaring engines, but all you have to do is actually get behind the wheel of the CLA to find the emotion behind it. And that emotion? Pure joy and ease.
The CLA250+ drove like a refined luxury car, nothing too zippy or athletic but delivering straightforward power when the throttle was applied. While the 250+ provided adequate power it did end up feeling slightly sedate, almost gentlemanly, when compared to its rip-roaring brother, the all-wheel-drive CLA350. Putting the hammer down in the 350 resulted in instant torque from a dead stop. I had to remind myself several times that the Danes are no slouches with speed cameras on their freeways.
It Was Just A Little Air, We're Still Good! It's Still Good!
The steel-sprung comfort suspension certainly proved its worth when a very sneaky speed bump appeared out of nowhere on a country road, sending the front end of my 250+ tester off the pavement a little. The landing left myself and my driver partner laughing with relief rather than fearing for the body work or our old-lady bad backs.
While I found the steering wheel layout annoying, the steering itself was excellent and responsive. My drive partner and I managed to get the car through a very narrow parking lot to a cafe and easily angle ourselves out without having to do the constant reverse-drive-reverse song and dance. In Copenhagen's man roundabouts, the steering needed only slight inputs to make it through the other side.
For The Kids
We just happened to be visiting Copenhagen on Graduation Day for high school students, and ended up behind several large open trucks full of drunk teenagers. That could be annoying, and probably was for the city's preponderance of bike riders, but in the CLA it was no problem. Both vehicles provided whisper quiet rides during stop-and-go slow-motion city driving and our more spirited countryside rides. Of course, it's an EV and you don't really expect engine noises, but in the CLA you are insulated from everyone else's noisy vehicles as well. There's also a total lack of fake engine noises; no sci-fi engine sounds, musical notes or, even worse, fake engine noise. I normally don't mind such manufactured sounds (except the fake engine noises) but a car this quiet feels more technologically advanced than any that produce beeps and boops.
The car has four regenerative braking levels accessible via the column-mounted gear shifter behind the steering wheel. Options range from very aggressive one-pedal driving to less invasive forms of energy recuperation. And when I say aggressive, I mean it. The CLA's one-pedal driving can bring you to a dead stop as if you just stood on the brakes. Most of the time, however, the system is handling regenerative braking based on driving behaviors and conditions in a completely unintrusive manner, perfect for the kind of driver that wants to regain that energy but doesn't want to find themselves constantly fiddling with settings.
Slowing Down To Power Up
For drivers who really want to engage with regen braking elements in the CLA, setting the braking regen to "intelligent mode" will engage a system called the Eco Assistant, which uses data from the navigation map as well as information from sensors and cameras in order to help the driver optimize their braking behavior depending on the intersections, inclines and speed limits the car will likely encounter on certain routes. It can "see" road events and even other vehicles coming up and indicate to the driver when to take their foot off the accelerator using a symbol on the driver's display, and it can even bring the car to a full stop at red lights or when encountering stopped traffic.
The CLA's class-leading aerodynamics, which start at a drag coefficient of just 0.21 with minor variations due to wheel options, promise more range but also a quieter ride. The two-tone full cover for alloy wheels option, for instance, improves the drag coefficient by up to two points. Joints around the front grille and star headlights plus parts of the underbody are sealed to give air plenty of body work to slip past rather than slow the car down.
It's Only Gonna Get Better
Listen, I could go on, and on, and on about every technical marvel embedded in this one electric car. The 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA is a handsome, zippy EV with some of the best range and fastest charging money can buy. The MSRP has yet to be announced, but I could easily see it starting somewhere in the low $50,000s when it goes on sale this fall, which would make it one of the more affordable luxury EVs on the market today.
The charging hurdles the new CLA faces are significant, but with new technology designed to extend the life of the battery, a CLA could survive long enough to see more than enough chargers standing ready to resupply its battery as quickly as it's capable of. If you're OK with waiting about six months, the 400-volt charging issue will be rectified, but if you're still waffling on the EV idea then, by all means, go for the hybrid. I think you'd be doing yourself a disservice, though — this is one seriously good EV.
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