The Mercedes-Benz CLA With EQ Technology is one of my favorite new electric cars because it does something rare: it’s defined by its tech but without feeling like it was designed by someone who hates driving. It’s also the first electric Mercedes since the EQC that I’d actually spend my own money on, since it’s one of the best commuter cars at any price.
Yes, it’s software-defined, but the miracle is that it still feels like a car, not an iPad with crumple zones. Driving the CLA feels refreshingly traditional and pleasant, right up until you reach for a fan speed knob and realize the control is buried in the touch screen.
The (Very) Good
Photo by: Andrei Nedelea
My first taste of the CLA was the press drive around Copenhagen, where it proved three things quickly: it’s quiet, it’s comfortable, and it’s more than comfortable on a twisty road.
Driving it for a week back home in Romania, in town, one-pedal driving performed really well, taking the strain out of driving in a queue of slow-moving cars. This is when you have time to look around the interior, which looks and feels better than in older generations of the nameplate, even with the flat dashboard design that is pretty unimaginative. It looks like the display wall at an electronics store: one long shelf of screens, arranged as if you’re comparing TVs.
Chatting up the AI-powered virtual assistant that’s part of the new MB.OS system software felt surprisingly natural. It doesn’t sound like you’re talking to a dysfunctional call center, and it felt noticeably better compared to when I tried it in Copenhagen. Back then, it got a bit confused at a few points and didn’t know what to say. It’s clearly been updated since then, exhibiting the kind of incremental improvement we expect from a software-defined vehicle, and you can have a surprisingly elaborate conversation with the car.
Photo by: Andrei Nedelea
I charged a CLA EV for the first time, too. I couldn’t find a charger near me that was powerful enough to max it out, but I did find a 300 kW unit, preconditioned for about 10 minutes in 41°F (5°C) on the way there, and watched it go from 24% to 75% in 21 minutes with an average charging power of 127 kW. That’s fantastic, and the CLA should do even better on a 350-kW or 400-kW plug.
It took me a few days to run it down from fully charged to 24%, since it displayed a theoretical maximum range of exactly 400 miles (645 km) when I got the car. At 24%, it said I could still do 94 miles (152 km), which suggests the initial estimate was accurate and it didn’t overestimate.
Even though the displayed range was lower than its 484-mile (779 km) WLTP estimate, it’s actually more than its EPA range of 374 miles (601 km), even though outside temperatures were close to freezing, far from ideal for any EV. Edmunds even managed to squeeze 434 miles (698 km) of mixed driving out of the 85 kilowatt-hour battery in a real-world range test.
What has always impressed me about the CLA EV is just how nice it is to drive. The powertrain calibration is spot on, and there’s plenty of power even in the 250+ variant, which gets a single motor with 268 horsepower and 247 lb-ft of torque. Accelerating from a standstill to 62 mph takes 6.7 seconds, and it has a fairly high top speed for an EV, reaching an electronically limited 130 mph (210 km/h).
Photo by: Andrei Nedelea
One of the things that makes the CLA EV unique is the two-speed gearbox on the rear motor, which maximizes both acceleration at lower speeds and efficiency at higher speeds. Very few other EVs have a two-speed transmission, and you can actually feel it grab second at around 60 mph, with a brief pause in the acceleration if you’re accelerating hard. Under less spirited driving, the shift is usually imperceptible.
The acceleration sound coming through the speakers also deserves attention. It’s subtle, slightly engine-ish, slightly sci-fi. When you floor the right pedal, the power gauge in the digital cluster displays a fire animation, which makes you feel like some sort of cartoon villain.
The sound and animation combined convey a sense of speed and acceleration that you don’t get in something like a Tesla Model 3, which doesn’t have an acceleration noise or a special animation.
Overall, it’s great because it gets all the important stuff right: it’s efficient, it charges quickly, it rides as a Mercedes should, and it feels special without turning every drive into a software demo. It eliminates range and charging anxiety, and feels surprisingly grown-up and special for an entry-level model into the Mercedes lineup.
The Not So Good
Photo by: Andrei Nedelea
But as good as it is, there are some things I wish Mercedes did differently. The back seat is not a place for tall adults to thrive. Two six-footers will fit, but the high floor puts knees in the air, and headroom is tight, so the glass roof is doing most of the psychological heavy lifting. It does just enough to keep rear passengers from feeling miserable. Maybe the wagon that I’ve yet to try will feel nicer in the back, although it won’t fix the footroom problem.
The hybrid version of the CLA has a different floorpan with more room for rear occupants’ feet, so the issue in the pure electric version is caused by its battery being in the floor. This isn’t a dealbreaker for most, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you frequently carry adults in the back. You’re probably not going to see many Uber drivers rocking CLAs.
I also can’t understand why there are only two buttons to operate all four electric windows. Volkswagen started this with the introduction of the ID.3 and ID.4, presumably as a cost-saving measure. However, if it got on my nerves in the Volkswagens, it’s extra-annoying to see somethingwearing one of the most prestigious badges in the industry. It just so happens that you always end up opening the rear windows when you don’t want to, or vice-versa.
Photo by: Andrei Nedelea
That’s not all. The infotainment operating system is visually inconsistent. Some screens and menus have a certain style, while others look completely different. This makes switching between screens visually jarring. The screen also showed occasional lag and choppiness, both when I tried the CLA in Copenhagen and when I was back home in Bucharest, even though, as I previously mentioned, I did notice an improvement.
The fact that there are no physical climate controls on the center stack is also not the best solution. Automakers like Volkswagen and Polestar have already announced they’re bringing back physical controls, and I hope Mercedes follows their lead. The interior of the new VW ID. Polo exhibits that, and it makes the CLA with its screen-only approach look like an outdated Chinese car.
My last gripe concerns perceived quality. While there is little to fault about the solidity or the build quality of the interior, and the various trim materials you can choose between are all really nice and surprisingly diverse, the plastic feels cheap to the touch in many places around the cabin in a way a BYD Seal just doesn’t. The surreal part is that a Seal feels more convincingly premium than a Mercedes. That sentence should not exist, yet here we are.
Still Very Good Overall
Gallery: 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA250+
The CLA EV is easy to like because it nails the fundamentals and only annoys you in the ways modern cars love to annoy you: screens, menus, and a few penny-pinching choices that feel beneath the badge. It’s the first software-defined vehicle from Mercedes, which you’d think would make it feel less connected to drive. But that isn’t the case. You quickly form a bond with this car, and it’s a very pleasant long-distance companion.
It’s also not as overpriced as some cars feel these days. It may not be able to beat the Tesla Model 3 as a pure value proposition, or for space and standard equipment, but it’s fairly priced. The base CLA 200 with a 221 hp motor and a smaller 58-kWh LFP battery starts at €47.870 here. That may sound like a lot, but it’s comparable to something like a Kia EV4 with similar specifications. I know which one I’d rather have.
The pick of the range is the single-motor long-range CLA 250+, priced from €52,640. It really needs the €3,254 AMG Line pack to look its best both inside and out, though. If I were in the market for an EV for daily commuting, the CLA would be near the top of my list. But with the tight rear seat and the limited cargo area of the sedan, I’d probably have my eye on the wagon.
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