Mercedes-Benz CLA Electric review

From £32,3908

Bar-raising EV’s big-range and fast-charging claims are put to the test

Ever since the car industry started slowly pivoting towards electric cars, it hasn’t felt like the European manufacturers have really steered the ship. They’ve made plenty of good cars that have appealed on more traditional grounds such as vehicle dynamics and interior quality and ambience, but the big pushes on range and lean manufacturing have come from Tesla, and advances in battery tech from China and South Korea. Meanwhile, solid-state batteries have been the technology of the near future for an awfully long time and hydrogen is turning out to be a dud for use in passenger cars.

Now here’s Mercedes-Benz with one of the longest-range electric cars on sale in the UK – and it’s not the brand’s top-dollar technology flagship but the entry-level saloon. The Mercedes-Benz CLA achieves this not with some next-generation battery, but with a combination of the fairly traditional engineering that Mercedes has long been known for – gearboxes and aerodynamics – and the electric motor expertise it has gathered over the past few years of volume EV making. It proved a match for the Tesla Model 3 in a recent group test, even if it couldn’t quite beat it. Now to see how it fares in our range of instrumented tests.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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02 Mercedes Benz CLA EV 2026 Autocar road test review front cornering

The CLA introduces an entirely new platform for Mercedes-Benz, named MMA or Mercedes Modular Architecture. With it comes a shift in strategy, one that is surprisingly the opposite of BMW’s approach with its Neue Klasse cars. Where Mercedes’ EQ cars have so far been completely separate from their combustion-engined counterparts (the EQE and E-Class share very little), the MMA also supports a range of 48V hybrids (Read our review of the Mercedes CLA Hybrid here). The need to house an engine, as well as the mixed reception to the design of the EQE and EQS, means that the CLA looks more conventional than those cars, with a relatively long bonnet.

Despite looking less overtly aero-optimised, drag-reducing measures are still a big part of the CLA’s design. At the front, the ‘grille’ is of course closed off on the EV (it becomes an actual air intake on the hybrids) and the joins between headlights and body panels are sealed as much as possible. Suspension components have their own covers to stop them disturbing the airflow. Just how slippery the CLA is does depend on the version you pick. The most optimised version, with aerodynamic 17in wheels and flush door handles, achieves a Cd of 0.21. This particular spec doesn’t exist in the UK and the more popular AMG Line cars, with slightly more open 19in wheels, will be closer to 0.23.

Faux grille contains 142 light-up stars, not counting the big one in the middle and the ones in the headlights. Testers’ opinions were divided, but the effect at night is striking. Hybrid CLA gets a real but similarly star-festooned grille.
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

On the drivetrain side, the CLA gets a new generation of batteries. It is being launched with an 85kWh (usable capacity; Mercedes refuses to disclose total capacity) nickel-manganese-cobalt pack that uses less cobalt and has much-improved energy density compared with previous generations. Mercedes quotes 680Wh/l rather than the more common Wh/kg, but it does seem to compare favourably with Tesla. In the latter metric, it might not be so impressive, given the CLA weighed 2029kg on our scales, which is similar to the Hyundai Ioniq 6 but significantly more than even the dual-motor Tesla Model 3, which we weighed at 1846kg. In spring 2026, the CLA 250+ will be joined by the CLA 200, which uses a 58kWh battery. That won’t be much lighter given it uses a lithium-iron-phosphate pack, which tend to be less energy dense. Both battery options use 800V architecture, to allow the bigger pack to charge at up to 320kW and the smaller one at up to 200kW. Early cars will only be able to use 800V DC charging stations, but from spring 2026 there will be the option of a step-down converter that will allow charging on 400V stations, albeit at a lower rate of 100kW.

The CLA’s efficiency party trick is its rear motor, which drives through a two-speed automatic transmission. First gear uses an 11.0:1 ratio, which is similar to the Ioniq 6’s 10.1:1, whereas second gear is much longer, at 5.0:1, to make it more efficient at motorway speeds. For comparison, the Tesla Model 3 uses a single ratio of 9.0:1. Along with the CLA 200, Mercedes will introduce the CLA 350 4Matic, which adds an additional motor on the front axle. Unusually, this is also a permanent magnet synchronous motor, albeit with a disconnect clutch. Most dual-motor EVs use an asynchronous unit as the secondary drive motor because they are cheaper and cause less drag when not in use. However, synchronous ones are more efficient when in use, and the disconnect clutch entirely removes any drag when it is not.

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INTERIOR

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07 Mercedes Benz CLA EV 2026 Autocar road test review interior

While some other manufacturers are slowly revising their touchscreen-dominant strategies, Mercedes is ploughing on full steam ahead. As on other Mercedes, the approach is at least relatively cohesive. The startlingly vertical fascia and relatively short dashboard are unusual and call forth a 1950s vision of the future. Our test car didn’t have the Superscreen, which replaces the field of stars in front of the passenger with an additional touchscreen, but based on our experience of such systems we wouldn’t bother with the extra £1350 required to step up to AMG Line Premium Edition+.

While Mercedes largely pulls off its wilfully modern design, it has gone too far in stripping away physical controls. Even compared with other recent Mercedes, the CLA has lost its buttons for the heated seats and lumbar support, and neither is especially easy to access in the touchscreen either. Meanwhile, the touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel are not the worst of their kind but have outstayed their welcome.

Mercedes has followed VW and Volvo in giving you only two window switches in this four-door car. You press a button to make them control the rear windows. Some people get quite vexed about this but I actually like it because it stops me accidentally opening the rear windows.
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

Nonetheless, there is plenty to like about the CLA’s interior. The touchscreen generally works intuitively, with the maps, media and essential vehicle controls all accessible directly from the home screen. The built-in navigation uses Google data, so it’s very aware of traffic conditions and will even warn you of potholes (we found it quite accurate). It gives you pretty good tools to find a fast charger, though it’s not infallible and misses some compatible chargers. The AI-assisted voice control is one of the best around, if no substitute for proper buttons. Switching in and out of smartphone mirroring is quick and easy, though Apple CarPlay did drop out occasionally, before reconnecting automatically.

Despite the sizeable battery, the CLA doesn’t give the driver the feeling of sitting on top of the car, and there is plenty of adjustment in the seat and steering column to find a comfortable driving position. The seats themselves are excellent as well, with softer padding than most Mercedes seats but plenty of support. We can’t help regretting the dearth of upholstery options, though. Even on Premium Edition+ trim, you’re limited to faux leather and microsuede in somewhat garish colours, whereas German buyers can spec black or brown leather. There is a good amount of interior storage, with generous cupholders and a dual-level centre console.

It is relatively tight in the back, however. It is short on leg room compared with the Tesla Model 3, never mind the Volkswagen ID 7 or Hyundai Ioniq 6. Rear passengers can just about tuck their feet under the front seats, and the floor doesn’t feel as high as in the Ioniq 6, but it’s certainly less accommodating than a conventional car of this size. Head room is okay, but only thanks to the standard full-length glass roof. The latter has no blind and can’t be darkened electrically but didn’t seem to excessively heat up the interior, at least in autumn.

The car is also down on boot space compared with rivals, though it does have a usefully big frunk, at 101 litres. The only way to open it is by pulling a lever in the interior, which does limit its usability.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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17 Mercedes Benz CLA EV 2026 Autocar road test driving lights

Doing a full-throttle acceleration run in the CLA is an unusual experience for an EV. With its 268bhp, the 250+ is about averagely powerful for the class. After all, it’s not meant as a performance model and it doesn’t have a launch control function. In fact, it somehow feels slightly slower than it really is. It reaches 60mph a few tenths behind the Volkswagen ID 7. Shortly after that, there’s a slight hesitation as it shifts to its second gear – an operation that is less instant than it is in the Porsche Taycan. With second gear engaged, it subjectively seems to get a second wind. In reality, the data shows that it loses some accelerative force compared with first gear but maintains its acceleration better than rivals. It reaches 110mph slightly sooner than the ID 7.

Look closely at the data, and you will notice that up to 70mph our test car was actually slightly faster with battery charge below 10% than with it over 90%. This was due to getting a better getaway, but it does show clearly that as far as UK road speeds are concerned, it doesn’t lose any performance at a low state of charge whatsoever, which is impressive.

Left column stalk controls lights and wipers but is intuitive and has good haptics. Right stalk is for the drive selection and regen, but annoyingly, the button on the end turns the car completely off, instead of putting it Park.
Matt Prior
Editor-at-large

Just as impressive is the CLA’s general drivability. There are no paddles to control the regenerative braking; instead you push and pull the drive selector stalk. This gives you the choice of a freewheeling mode, a one-pedal mode, a few regen strengths in between and an adaptive mode. Most testers preferred the freewheeling setting, because in combination with the very progressive brake pedal it makes the CLA deeply relaxing and intuitive to drive. Some testers found the one-pedal mode a little too fierce.

While on the subject of the drive selector, we do have an unusual complaint. There is no Park mode. Instead, the button at the end of the stalk turns the car on and off. If you instinctively try to put it in Park (for instance, when pulling over to look at your phone), this will kill some of the infotainment functions, and cycle all the ADAS features that legally need to default to on, which is irritating and unnecessary. You can, of course, put it in Neutral and engage the handbrake, but that’s unintuitive and fiddly.

Performance testing also uncovered one of the CLA’s most disappointing attributes. In the dry, its stopping distances are unremarkable if unusually variable. However, it needed 64.3m to stop from 70mph in the wet. When you consider that most cars, regardless of weight, need around 55m (Kia EV3: 50.5m; Volvo XC60 T8: 56.2m), this is unacceptable for a company that prides itself on safety. The Volkswagen ID 7 GTX recorded a similar stopping distance (62.8m), so it’s not entirely unusual, but if Mercedes has fitted tyres that compromise wet braking for efficiency to this degree, we would argue it was the wrong choice.

RIDE & HANDLING

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18 Mercedes Benz CLA EV 2026 Autocar road test review front cornering

The CLA’s chassis conjures Mercedes of old in some ways, in that it is quite light on whiz-bang ‘features’ – lacking any form of active suspension or four-wheel or variable-ratio steering – but manages to feel very cohesive. It’s the sort of set-up that could only have come from a car maker with over a century of experience in tuning such things. At the rear is the expected multi-link, while at the front there’s a variation of a MacPherson strut. Mercedes calls it a three-link as the tie rod adds more support than usual. Dampers are simple passive items.

Nevertheless, Mercedes has struck a particularly pleasant balance of ride and handling. The suspension doesn’t completely iron out the bigger bumps like some air-sprung systems but is settled and just lets you know what’s going on underwheel. If it were any softer, it might risk becoming floaty. Equally, high-frequency impacts are reduced to blunt thumps. Smaller wheels with taller tyres might make those even less noticeable, but we wouldn’t expect miracles from the 18in wheels. It’s fairly quiet at motorway speed too.

The CLA has pop-out door handles, but unlike those in the latest Audis, Volvos and Teslas, they use cables to unlatch the door because Mercedes doesn’t trust purely electronic mechanisms to still work in the event that a freak accident takes out the 12V power. That seems sensible to me, though they didn't always pop out when I expected them to during our test.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Point the CLA at a corner, and it makes the most of its rear-drive layout. The steering is nicely uncorrupted, intuitively geared and weights up a little as you load up the chassis. It initially turns in quite keenly, but if you’re really pushing it, you soon run into the limits of those economy-focused tyres. In Germany, it’s possible to spec ‘sport’ tyres, which might just tip the CLA into sports saloon territory and shorten that wet braking distance. There is initially little sense of rear-drive balance, as the stability control is very conservative. Switch to the ‘off’ mode (which isn’t fully off), and the CLA will rotate quite progressively on the accelerator. On both the wet and dry handling tracks, the alliance of a powerful rear motor and quite a rear-heavy weight balance made the CLA amusingly adjustable.

Finally, a brief note on the assisted driving systems. Mercedes-Benz basically invented adaptive cruise control with the S-Class of the early 2000s, and still has one of the best such systems. Except, it doesn’t seem to have fitted it to the CLA. The system is less confident than on other Mercedes, and it more regularly slows down for traffic that isn’t there. The undertaking prevention also can’t be disabled. Although our test car supposedly had matrix LED headlights, they did not seem to work – instead simply activating and deactivating the high beam as necessary. On the mandatory safety features front, it’s better news. The lane keep assist and driver monitoring are a bit of a faff to disable but generally unintrusive, while the speed limit warning is better than most and very easy to turn off.

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MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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01 Mercedes Benz CLA EV 2026 Autocar road test review Front driving lead

At £45,615, the entry-level Sport trim is priced in line with a Long Range Single Motor Model 3, though the Tesla is much more generously equipped as standard. However, the Sport is the version we would recommend, since the smaller wheels might just improve the ride further and net you a few more miles of range. It also comes with normal rather than the flush door handles of our test car, which didn’t always pop out when we expected them to. Whichever spec you choose, though, the Tesla is much cheaper on PCP finance. Compared with other rivals, the Mercedes is fairly decent value.

Despite being the second-highest trim level, our test car didn’t have a powered bootlid, but the springs are strong enough that the lid leaps up when you press the button. I prefer it this way because it’s quicker. The lack of a heated steering wheel is an issue, though.
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

So what of that much-vaunted range and efficiency? There’s no doubt that the CLA performed very well – 3.6mpkWh on our touring test (which tends to be more pessimistic than regular motorway driving) and 4.6mpkWh on the ‘everyday’ test are among the best figures we have recorded. But given all of its tech, we expected it to really outshine the Teslas. It’s a similar story with rapid charging. A weighted average of 195kW and a (very brief) peak of 330kW are undoubtedly impressive, but equally it’s not the leap that we hoped for. For reference, we recorded 180kW from the Hyundai Ioniq 6 two years ago. It was a little disappointing how quickly the CLA’s charging speed dropped off.

As it stands, the CLA is unable to use 400V chargers. Depending on how much it will cost, we might not even bother with the optional step-down converter that is coming in 2026. Most rapid chargers that put out more than 150kW (which is the vast majority of those on the UK motorway network, excluding Tesla Superchargers) support 800V.

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VERDICT

20 Mercedes Benz CLA EV 2026 Autocar road test review front static

Following a group test and a road test, we are thoroughly impressed with the new CLA. It’s very pleasant and enjoyable to drive thanks to its balanced suspension, configurable drivetrain and comfortable driving position. It’s also at the forefront of EV tech, being among the fastest-charging cars and having a long range that’s a result of clever energy usage instead of brute force.

Zooming out a bit, though, the simpler Tesla Model 3 still matches it for efficiency, there are some promising cars in the BMW pipeline, and at the same time the lack of physical controls and the tyres’ poor wet performance are regrettable. This new CLA is a step rather than a leap forward for European EVs. It’s a very appealing car but will need continuous development if it’s not to be left behind in the coming years.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S or a 1990 BMW 325i Touring.