All-new CLA is ‘cleverest Mercedes ever made’

Forget everything you know about the Mercedes CLA’s first decade as a four-door A-Class, as here comes just about the most dramatic reboot (pun intended, sorry) of a small Mercedes saloon ever. In addition to a line-up of EQ technology EVs – boasting incredible system efficiency claims and charging rates not yet seen in the sector – there’s also a raft of next-generation future hybrids. It might look reasonably familiar as a compact Merc, but this really is an entirely new approach for the CLA. Forget A3 saloons and 2 Series Gran Coupes; this is now rivalling Model 3 Teslas and the like, with the upcoming BMW Neue Klasse saloon firmly on the radar as well. 

While there’s the obvious electrification to factor into that judgement, the CLA also now rivals a different class of car because it’s a physically larger vehicle; it’s grown significantly in every direction compared to the old model. There’s another 61mm in the wheelbase, for example, now 2,790mm, which will naturally aid occupant space in the back. Overall length is now 4,723mm (a current 3 Series is just 10mm shorter, for reference), width is up an inch to 1,855mm excluding mirrors and this CLA is a little taller as well, at 1,468mm. While traditional boot volume has shrunk by 55 litres to 405l, a frunk for the EQ cars boosts overall carrying capacity to 506 litres. An entirely newly developed multi-link axle goes in the rear of the CLA – it’s a proper little luxury car now, or so it would seem. 

It seems unlikely that anyone will mistake this new model for the old CLA, but to make sure there are 142 chrome effect stars in the front of an electric one where the grille was for a ‘distinctive brand signature’. Mercedes suggests that the rear end brings to mind the GT and ensures a ‘powerful presence’, with further stars in the rear light design. Likewise the interior will bring to mind more senior Mercs, complete with the optional floating Superscreen which can go the full width of the dash – unheard of in this segment before now. The full thing will be made up of a 10.25-inch driver’s display (with a huge HUD available), 14-inch central display and a 14-inch LCD for the passenger. If that latter item isn’t optioned, the trim in front of whoever’s next to you will be adorned with – you guessed it – a star pattern graphic. The multi-function wheel is new (it appears fractionally less complicated than previous Merc layouts), and there is a swathe of trendy materials available to show off to your friends along with the Superscreen: Microcut (from PET bottles) for a suede look on AMG Line seats, leather tanned with natural agents like coffee bean husks and Econyl yarn for the floor. If all that doesn’t impress, show them 64 shades and 10 colour worlds of ambient lighting. 

But that’s not the big news, of course, however nice Benz ambient lighting is. The significant thing is the 800-volt electric architecture that will now underpin the CLA. (Some of the CLAs, at least.) Both rear-drive 250+ and 350 4MATIC – the first variants available – are powered by an 85kWh battery that can be charged at up to 320kW, which sounds unprecedented for the segment, and means 200 miles could theoretically be added in 10 minutes. Something like a Polestar 2 can only draw 205kW, for example. Mercedes says there’s less cobalt in the battery than previous EQ EVs, the carbon footprint per cell is reduced by about 30 per cent (alongside a 40 per cent reduction for the vehicle overall) and a heat pump is standard fit. As is a two-speed gearbox on both, in fact, for both good acceleration and efficiency. Buyers can even tow with a CLA, if desired.

The 350 is said to be capable of 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds thanks to very nearly 350hp and 380lb ft. Mercedes reckons this CLA with EQ technology is a ‘one-litre car for the electric age’, implying that it’s very efficient. A drag co-efficient from 0.21 and a silicon carbide inverter (tech inspired by the EQXX, no less) are said to contribute. The flagship 350 delivers a respectable WLTP claim of between 4.2 and 4.9 miles per kilowatt hour on the way to a maximum range of 479 miles. It’s the lower-powered 250 that’s the real range champion, as expected, with anything up to 492 miles claimed. Its best-case efficiency is a smidge more than five miles per kilowatt hour. Again, a pretty big deal for this class of car. (A 58kWh battery model will follow at the end of 2025, with a lithium-iron-phosphate battery instead of lithium-ion.) The CLA is capable of bidirectional charging, both vehicle to load and vehicle to grid, though the functionality will only come through a later OTA update. Gotta love modern cars sometimes.  

Interestingly, Mercedes states that the 200kW (268hp) drive unit powering the rear wheels in a 250 is ‘directly derived’ from that used in the EQXX. It’s an entirely in-house design, said to be capable of battery-to-wheel efficiency (on long journeys) of 93 per cent, and of course brings the ‘optimal driving characteristics’ of rear-wheel drive to the CLA for the first time. While the 350 introduced all-wheel drive to the model, it runs as rear-drive for the majority of the time; the front is said to serve as a boost, ‘activated only when additional power or traction is needed’, with a Disconnect Unit (DCU) employed to unhook the front motor when under low load. 

To think we’ve not even discussed recuperation yet – told you this was more than the usual update. CLA with EQ technology can recuperate up to 200kW, with levels of regen adjustable via the drive mode paddle. There are four settings: D Auto for intelligent recuperation, D+ for none, D for standard recuperation and D- for enhanced. In case the interior wasn’t keeping you occupied enough. And an Eco Assistant is on hand to pick up on your bad habits and minimise energy consumption. Which surely won’t be annoying whatsoever. MB.CHARGE Public, the new name for Mercedes me Charge, aims to ensure that rejuicing the batteries isn’t, at least. 

If the world were perfectly attuned to Mercedes’ long-term strategy, that would be all you needed to know about the new CLA – but the firm hardly needed to resort to fish entrails to know that selling an all-electric version exclusively would likely result in disappointing sales (because that’s what happened with larger versions of its battery-powered saloons). Consequently, late last year it confirmed the solution: its shiny MMA platform would effectively be retrofitted with a new four-cylinder petrol engine, thereby providing customers with a petrol-electric hybrid variant of the CLA. 

Or more specifically, three derivatives, if we’re divvying them up by power output. And a choice of front-drive and 4Matic, too – a level of choice indicative of a) how much time and effort Mercedes has put into developing the hybrid model, and b) the level of interest they ultimately expect it to generate. For now, the firm is keeping most of the specific technical details to itself (the hybrid isn’t due till later this year) but we do already know what the in-house developed, Miller-cycle powertrain will look like. 

Small, for one thing. Faced with a platform developed primarily to accommodate batteries and electric motors, the engineers (presumably with a look on their faces reminiscent of the NASA engineers required to make an air filter out of socks and spare parts for Apollo 13) have striven for a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-pot of impressively compact dimensions. The cylinders are said to be packaged remarkably close together and the exhaust manifold has been ‘partially integrated’ into the cylinder head. Similarly, the electric motor and inverter have been integrated into a brand-new eDCT transmission – which is also as small as possible. 

Though presumably there was more room for it, Mercedes has also opted to stick with a lightweight (i.e. dinky) battery, the newly-developed 48-volt, lithium-ion, flatpack-filler maxing out at 1.3kWh. Nevertheless, the manufacturer reckons at ‘urban speeds’ (or when less than 27hp is required) your hybrid CLA will run on battery power alone, and it’ll ‘electric sail’ at speeds of up to 60mph. Predictably, the bumf suggests that ‘switching between the two motors are almost imperceptible to the driver’, and its maker has achieved an ‘exemplary NVH behaviour’. 

If that sounds like it might be less than thrilling to drive, then you’re probably right. But that won’t stop it being very sophisticated and extremely efficient – which is precisely the point. In fact, for all Mercedes’ bluster about a one-litre mindset, if the hybrid CLA achieves the diesel-like economy figures it has been strongly hinting at, it may very well be the petrol-powered model that ends up capturing the imagination of a buying public that wants to go further for less without the tedium of endlessly finding a socket to plug into. Which, ironically, really would qualify it as one of the cleverest cars Mercedes has ever made – and not before time.