Mercedes-Benz CLA Review

At first glance, the latest CLA looks like a familiar evolution of the old CLA. It still has the swooping roofline, the compact four-door proportions and the same core appeal of offering Mercedes style and swagger in a relatively affordable package. Underneath, though, this is a much more groundbreaking and important car than the nameplate suggests.

The CLA is no longer simply a dressed-up offshoot of the A-Class hatchback. It is now one of the cars leading Mercedes’ next phase of models, and in electric form it feels like the version the whole project was really built around. Earlier Mercedes EVs often felt slightly detached from the rest of the line-up, with their own separate design language and naming logic. The CLA is different because as well as being offered in the electric form we’re talking about here, it’s also offered in mild hybrid form. We haven’t driven that version yet, but once we do, we’ll write a separate review. Here, we’re concerned only with the EV.

The big headline is range. In mid-range CLA 250+ form, this is one of the longest-range electric cars on sale in the UK. That alone gives it a clear point of difference against similarly priced alternatives. Plenty of EVs now drive well and charge quickly. Far fewer can make long distances feel this easy, especially without moving into a much larger or much more expensive class of car.

It’s not a one-trick pony, though. The CLA Electric is also impressively refined and easy to drive. The suspension has been tuned with comfort in mind, road- and wind noise are very well suppressed, and the whole car has a smooth and relaxing character.

There are still compromises. Rear-seat space is limited, which comes with the territory in a low-roofed four-door like this. The boot is merely average for size, and while the cabin looks futuristic, some of the materials don’t feel as expensive as they probably should. 

If you need the extra practicality, there’s always the CLA Electric Shooting Brake, which you can read about in our separate review. This review, however, is focused on the saloon.

The pick of the range is the CLA 250+ in Sport Executive trim. The entry-level CLA 200 Electric does okay for range, especially if price is the deciding factor, but the CLA 250+ is the one that really delivers the impressive numbers thanks to its bigger 85kWh usable battery and slippery shape.

On trim level, the entry-level Sport trim will have enough standard kit for most people, but the Sport Executive adds some very desirable nice-to-haves, and the extra amount you pay for them is entirely sensible. There’s no reason to go any higher than this unless you really want the sportier styling of the AMG Line cars, which cost a good chunk more.

The Mercedes-Benz CLA Electric starts at £39,150 for the CLA 200 Sport and rises to £56,350 for the CLA 350 4MATIC AMG Line Premium Plus. That’s a fairly broad spread, from relatively accessible to proper premium EV territory.

Move up to the CLA 250+ from the base-level CLA 200, and the price rises, as you would expect, but the much longer range makes the upgrade very easy to justify. We don’t think you need to upgrade to the 350 4MATIC. It’s considerably more expensive, you get less range despite its battery being the same size as that of the 250+, and you don’t need the extra power as the 250+ is plenty fast enough.

There is not a perfect like-for-like alternative to the CLA Electric, which is part of its appeal. The BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe and Audi A3 Saloon are similar in shape, size and prestige positioning, but neither is currently offered as an all-electric car.

Probably the closest rival is the Tesla Model 3, which is very similar for size, and has the same saloon boot design and a similar prestige, high-tech appeal. However, the American car has been around a lot longer, so its tech feels a little behind the Merc’s.

There’s also the BYD Seal, which is another mid-size electric saloon car (albeit a slightly bigger one) that’s chock-full of tech. It arguably doesn’t have the same prestige appeal, though. If you’re prepared to go a little bigger, then potential rivals could also include the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Volkswagen ID.7.

Those in the front of the CLA will be very happy. The seats are comfortable and supportive, and they offer enough adjustment to make it easy to get settled. The driving position feels slightly cocooning - but not cramped, importantly - due to the vast slab of vertical dashboard that sits high up in front of you. More on that in a while.

Rear-seat space is a lot more limited. Rear legroom is a little on the tight side, and the car’s sloping roofline does encroach on rear headroom. There are plenty of rival compact electric saloons that’ll be more accommodating for passengers. Children will be fine, but adults - especially taller ones - might wish you chose differently.

The boot holds 405 litres, which is acceptable but not generous. What’s more, the saloon-style opening makes larger items more awkward to load than they would be in a hatchback or estate. The rear seats fold down in a 40/20/40 split, but Mercedes doesn’t quote a figure for how much space this opens up.

The better news is that the CLA Electric also has a useful front storage compartment under the bonnet, totalling a sizeable 101 litres (that’s 17 litres more than the ‘frunk’ you get in a Tesla Model 3) giving you an alternative space to stash charging cables or smaller items.

The Mercedes-Benz CLA Electric measures 4,723mm long, 1,855mm wide and 1,468mm high. That makes it long enough to look sleek and sophisticated, yet compact enough to remain manageable in tighter urban spaces.

This is the part that dominates the CLA’s interior. All versions get a 10.25-inch driver display behind the steering wheel, plus a large 14.0-inch central infotainment touchscreen. It all looks very flash, of course, due to the sheer scale of the screens and the crisp graphics on show, while the central screen responds quickly and predictably to your inputs, and the core menu structure is actually pretty easy to get to grips with (such systems often aren’t).

It's not perfect, of course. The bottom portion of the screen is taken up by climate controls, and using these is much more fiddly and distracting than using physical buttons and knobs would be. The steering wheel also has touch-sensitive controls that respond to taps and swipes, and these are fiddly and imprecise to use, too.

Top-end AMG Line Premium and AMG Line Premium Plus versions also get what Mercedes calls the ‘Superscreen’: this is essentially another 14.0-inch screen in front of the front passenger that can be used (by that passenger, obviously) to watch films, play games or operate certain apps. This effectively covers the entire width of the slab-fronted dashboard with screens. Again, it looks impressive, but it’s all a bit needless.

Mercedes makes much of its AI-enhanced voice assistance, but as far as we could see, it was just as hit-and-miss (usually miss) as most of the other systems we’ve encountered.

In terms of functionality, the system supports everything you expect, including native navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and DAB radio. For reasons we can’t quite fathom, the standard kit list also includes an internal selfie and video camera. Getting wireless phone charging involves one step up the ladder to Sport Executive trim, while you have to step up all the way to top-spec AMG Line Premium Plus for a Burmester 3D Surround Sound system.

This is where the CLA Electric might disappoint you slightly. The overall design is striking, and the leather-style upholstery and large digital surfaces give the car a clear sense of occasion. However, some of the plastics used on the dashboard, centre console and doors are surprisingly lightweight in their look and feel, making the car’s interior feel less classy and substantial than you’ll probably expect in a car like the CLA. 

That’s especially true in cars that don’t have the Superscreen fitted, because in place of the third screen is a large slab of shiny plastic with rather tacky-looking backlit Mercedes stars etched on it. The air vents on the outer ends of the dashboard look and feel a bit flimsy, too.

First up is the CLA 200, which has a single rear-mounted motor developing 224PS, fed by a 58kWh battery pack. Official figures say that it’ll do the 0-62mph dash in 7.5 seconds and has a range of up to 331 miles.

Then comes the CLA 250+, which again has a single motor driving the rear wheels, this time with 272PS, giving a 0-62mph sprint time of 6.7 seconds. The bigger news, though, is the larger 85kWh battery which, thanks to the car’s sensational efficiency, delivers a massive range of up to 483 miles according to official WLTP figures.

At the top of the range sits the CLA 350 4MATIC. This has a second motor lashed to the front axle, giving all-wheel drive, with a total power output of 354PS, all fed by that same 85kWh battery. The 0-62mph sprint time drops to 4.9 seconds, but range also drops to a maximum of 465 miles.

The only one we’ve driven so far is the 250+. It’s not the rocketship experience that some EVs are, but it accelerates briskly and easily, and never feels like it’s lacking in urge. It’ll be plenty pokey enough for most drivers.

One interesting feature on all versions is the two-speed automatic gearbox: most EVs don’t have a gearbox at all, instead settling for a single-speed transmission. There’s a first gear for acceleration, and a second gear to give better efficiency when cruising. You do feel the shift between the gears happening, but it’s very smooth.

Much like previous versions of the CLA, the latest one uses conventional steel-sprung suspension rather than the fancy air suspension seen on pricier Mercedes-Benz models. Nevertheless, the arrangement still does a fine job of smoothing out lumps and bumps in the road surface, and that’s the case on all sorts of road, at all speeds. This is an impressively comfortable car that obviously places the focus on keeping life behind the wheel easy and relaxed. The excellent refinement you get from a very quiet powertrain and excellent suppression of wind- and road noise contributes greatly to that calming atmosphere, too.

It's not sporty or exciting in any way, but that’s just fine by us, and it will be with most buyers, too. That said, the suspension isn't so soft that the car’s body bounces around on undulating roads or lollops sideways in tighter corners. It stays quite flat, in fact, and with plenty of grip and responsive steering, the CLA is a car that handles in an entirely tidy and capable way, as well as riding impressively smoothly.

As mentioned, the CLA 250+ that we’ve tried has its single motor mounted on the rear axle. Traction is very good, though, so you probably won’t notice that it's rear-wheel drive unless it's wet and you put your foot down from a standstill, at which point there can be a light dash of wheelspin from the back, but it’s nothing unsettling. The CLA 350 EQ has an extra motor on the front axle to provide all-wheel drive, but we haven't tried it yet.

The Mercedes-Benz CLA achieved a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating in 2025, with strong scores across the board. It achieved 94% for Adult Occupant protection, 89% for Child Occupant protection, 93% for protection of Vulnerable Road Users, and 85% for Safety Assist. That was enough to earn the car one of Euro NCAP’s Best-in-Class classifications.

Standard safety equipment is generous, with features such as blind-spot assistance, lane-keeping support, driver-attention monitoring and adaptive cruise control. Standard parking sensors and a reversing camera also help you avoid parking scrapes.

Charging your CLA at home will be the cheapest way of running it, and getting yourself a 7kW wallbox charger will be the most convenient way of doing that. On that type of connection, a full charge of the smaller 58kWh battery will take somewhere in the region of nine hours, while a full replenishment of the larger 85kWh item will take around 13 hours. Assuming that you pay for your domestic electricity at the UK’s national average rate, the costs of those charges will be around £16 for the smaller battery and around £24 for the larger one.

However, any sensible EV owner will have their home on a variable-rate electricity tariff that allows them to charge their car overnight on heavily discounted off-peak power. Taking that one simple step could drop your charging costs down to around a third of those quoted.

It’s the opposite case when you need to use public DC rapid chargers: the power that comes out of these often costs three times more than the national average due to the speed and convenience with which it's delivered, so we’d only recommend using such chargers when you absolutely have to.

There’s a minor complication here, too. The CLA has 800V charging compatibility, which allows super-fast maximum DC charging speeds of up to 320kW on compatible chargers (or only 200kW on the CLA 200). However, it also makes the car incompatible with older 400V chargers, which currently make up around half of the UK’s rapid-charging network. You can add 400V compatibility to your CLA as a cost option, but it’s not cheap, and it only allows a maximum charging speed of 100kW on a 400V charger.

Mercedes’ standard new-car warranty remains fairly modest at three years. It’s good that there’s no mileage limit on the cover, because plenty of equivalent three-year arrangements from rival manufacturers impose a 60,000-mile limit, but even so, a lot of other rival carmakers are being a lot more generous with their warranty periods these days.

The battery warranty is more reassuring, with cover for up to eight years or 100,000 miles. That’s pretty much the industry standard in this area.

Servicing should be simpler than for an equivalent petrol car, but Mercedes dealer labour is still unlikely to be especially cheap.

The CLA Electric sits in insurance groups 37 to 45, depending on version and trim. That means cover is unlikely to be cheap, which to be fair, is unsurprising with an expensive premium-badged electric car.

If an EV has a list price of below £50,000 when brand new, including any optional extras fitted, then it’s liable for just the basic rate of VED road tax, currently charged at £200 per year. If a car’s list price sits above that threshold, then it’s also liable for the Expensive Car Supplement on top of that, which adds another £440 to your annual tax bill between years two and six of the car’s life. That’s certainly worth avoiding if you can.

With current UK pricing, most versions of the CLA sit below that threshold, while a few higher-spec ones sit above it. And some of the ones that sit below the threshold sit quite close, and adding a few optional extras can easily take the price over.

As a result, be very careful when selecting your desired powertrain and trim choice, and when selecting optional extras. If buying used, you probably won’t know exactly how much a particular car cost when it was brand new, but a quick Google search of the registration mark of any potential purchase should give you clarity over what you’re letting yourself in for.