The 2026 Mercedes CLA-Class Is A Turning Point For EVs. Here

I want you to know, InsideEVs reader, that I had a burning desire to try out the fast-charging on the new 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class. How could I not?

The newest electric Mercedes sedan claims a peak DC fast-charging rate of 320 kilowatts—among the highest in the U.S. market and more than double what many current EVs can handle. I was dying to see if it could really get you 200 miles of range in just 10 minutes of charging. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

But I ran into a problem. Not with the car, mind you, but with what it’s capable of. A day before I arrived in San Francisco to test the CLA 250+, as it’s called, the folks at Edmunds managed a 434-mile drive on a single charge.

And I’m sorry to tell you, reader, that I didn’t budget enough time to drive to the middle of Oregon and back. (I have a life outside of you people!)

Yet all of this is why the CLA-Class is so promising. It’s a long-range and fast-charging EV without some astronomical price tag, the likes of which America hasn’t really seen before. It’s not just a needed electric comeback for Mercedes—it’s a sign of where the entire EV market is headed next. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

(Full Disclosure: Mercedes covered my travel and lodging in San Francisco for the U.S. launch of the CLA-Class.)

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: What Is It?

My European colleague Andrei Nedelea has driven the CLA on its home turf and came away very impressed, but this was my first go with the car on American shores.

It is both a continuation of the CLA-Class line of Mercedes-Benz gateway-drug sedans that launched in the 2010s and a needed break from what came before. The latest CLA is the first of several models on Mercedes’ all-new MMA platform, which packs a spec sheet that’s as impressive as EVs get right now.

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

It features an 800-volt electrical architecture, the aforementioned 320 kW fast charging, a native Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug, a two-speed transmission to boost range, a new and fully updatable software suite, more advanced automated driver assistance systems (ADAS) than we’ve seen from almost any other Mercedes to date, and a host of new technologies designed to maximize efficiency.

Its range is EPA-rated at up to 374 miles for the single-motor version and 312 miles for the CLA 350 4Matic dual-motor all-wheel-drive version, although some journalists have clearly blown past that. Both CLA-Class variants get an 85-kilowatt-hour battery. (A hybrid version is coming soon, too, with a 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder mated to a 1.3-kWh battery, but early reviews of that seem tepid so far.) 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

From all of that, I feel like I’m describing some kind of Lucid Air variant. But the CLA-Class comes in a lot cheaper: the single-motor car starts at $47,250, while the dual-motor car comes in at $49,800. Both are below the price of an average new car in America these days, and not that far off the old gas-powered CLA-Class.

Not bad at all, and exactly the kind of electric reset Mercedes needs after its first generation of EQ cars failed to win buyers with their controversial styling, kitchen-sink approach to tech and high price tags. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

Photos by: Patrick George

There are a few caveats a prospective owner should know. The charging setup is a bit odd: you get a NACS port for fast-charging and a standard J1772 port for AC charging, so your life will be an odd mix of adapters for a bit. But the car does launch with Tesla Supercharger compatibility and a voltage converter, so fears of it being unable to use a 400-volt EV charger are thankfully unfounded.

Here are five big takeaways from my time behind the wheel of the single-motor CLA 250+. 

You Really Don’t Need The Dual-Motor Version

I am certainly reluctant to pass judgment on a car I haven’t driven yet. But let’s be honest: a lot of single-motor EVs can feel a bit gutless compared to their dual-motor siblings. (Certainly not all, of course, but all-wheel-drive is where you really tend to feel that rush of instant torque.) 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

The CLA 250+ is different. Mercedes may quote a 6.6-second 0-60 mph time, but that may be as sandbagged as the range estimate. In real-world driving, this car feels a hell of a lot quicker than that.

Stomp the accelerator and it moves with vigor, running out of breath a bit toward upper highway speeds, but still capable of dusting any gas car in its way—or running on the Autobahn. And since this version packs more range and is a few thousand bucks less, it’s the one to get. 

It drives quite well. The CLA 250+ proved to be an agile, if hefty-feeling, cruiser on the winding roads along the Northern California coastline. It can’t match most BMWs I’ve driven or the Tesla Model 3 Performance, but it’s still fun enough to make you look forward to a good road. 

It’s An Efficiency Monster

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

“Every watt.” That’s what Timo Stegmaier, the senior manager of electric drive systems at Mercedes, told me was the engineering philosophy behind this car. Everything counts. Everything adds up. Anything that uses energy at all, from the USB ports to the drivetrain itself—how could they make it better? 

Let’s take that two-speed transmission, for example. The first gear is for hard acceleration from a stop and efficient city driving, while the second is for highway cruising. Not many EVs use a two-speed approach; the old Tesla Roadster was one and the Porsche Taycan is another. But it works well here. It’s also totally seamless. If the CLA 250+ ever changed gears during driving, I never once felt it. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

Or the air-to-air heat pump, which harnesses waste heat from the drive unit, the battery and ambient air. Mercedes says it needs just one-third of the energy that a comparable auxiliary heater would to deliver the same output. Or the energy recuperation of up to 200 kW. Or how the braking components are all in one compact “box” to maximize space and energy use. Or the drag coefficient of just 0.21. 

All of these things add up. In a day of hard driving around a chilly December day in Northern California, I still managed 3.7 miles per kWh—the kind of efficiency my Kia EV6 might pull on a perfect-weather early summer day. I am not shocked that Mercedes is aiming for 5.2 miles per kWh here. I bet it can. 

The Software Is A Big Upgrade

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

I spent some time in a Mercedes EQS sedan a few months ago, right around the time it was canceled for the U.S. market. I found it to be cramped, charmless and frustrating to operate, especially with a central screen that kind of vomited technology at you but offered little guidance in the way of actually finding what apps you needed or what settings you wanted to adjust. 

And the obligatory passenger screen. 

Photo by: Patrick George

The CLA-Class offers something completely different in the form of the new Mercedes-Benz Operating System, or MB.OS. It is much more straightforward to use, with a clearer central menu that would feel at home on your iPad screen. The graphics are improved thanks to the Unity Game Engine, the various apps can be organized into folders like on your smartphone, and you can swipe left anytime to return to the main grid.

I’ll have more to say about Mercedes’ new AI-powered MBUX Virtual Assistant—which mixes AI systems from both Microsoft and Google to answer your questions, plan your driving route and much more—in a separate video test. But I’ll say this now: I missed it when I couldn’t use it anymore.

It Needs More Buttons, But It’s Getting Some (Eventually) 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

Photos by: Patrick George

I find Mercedes slider controls to be irritating on a good day. But they’re even more irksome on the CLA-Class, because right now, you get a steering wheel largely devoid of useful physical controls. And don’t expect much help from the thin, plastic-y, cheap-feeling row of buttons that’s a long reach from the driver and kind of placed under the air vents. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

Here’s where one of my biggest gripes about this car comes into play: if you want to change the audio track with the steering wheel, you can’t. It has no such functionality. You can use the touchscreen, of course, or say “Hey, Mercedes” and ask the AI assistant to do it. But as someone who listens to a lot of music when I’m driving and frequently flips between tracks, that would get old pretty fast. The AI assistant would probably get sick of me, too.

The good news is that a more conventional, button-packed steering wheel is coming, but only for the 2027 model-year car, a Mercedes rep confirmed. I’m not saying you should wait for that car, but I am saying you should ask your local dealer if a retrofit can be done. 

The Back Seat Is A Little Tight

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

The CLA never suffered from the cramped packaging of that EQS, where the battery felt like it took up half the interior volume. Indeed, the MMA platform incorporates a lot of design lessons, so the front part of the cabin is spacious and comfortable for longer drives.

But the coupe-like shape takes it toll on the rear seat. Not only is the rear door opening oddly small and tough to clamber into, but the CLA also doesn’t offer much in the way of headroom or legroom when you’re back there.

It’s a sedan for singles, couples and a car seat at most; anyone after a family EV should wait for the new GLC-Class instead. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: Early Verdict

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

I think it says a lot that my biggest gripes with this car were the lack of steering-wheel buttons and the back seat.

Here’s the highest praise I can offer for the CLA 250+: when I was driving it all around the Bay Area, I never worried about EV range. Not even once. That’s because this car has so much of it that it would take the better part of a day to burn it off. If I needed to “fill up,” I knew it could happen very quickly. I could get all of that for $10,000 less than the starting price of a BMW i4.

It’s one of the first times I’ve seen a so-called “legacy” automaker match or even surpass what Tesla, Rivian, or the Chinese brands can do. We’ll see if Mercedes can really keep up with them on the elusive software update front. But for now, this is an extremely promising machine. 

2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

Photo by: Patrick George

This feels like the EV endgame people were promised. Long range, truly fast charging, and pricing that doesn’t break the bank, all adding up to a car that makes gasoline feel obsolete. In the wake of a challenging 2025 for electric vehicles, it’s hard not to see the CLA-Class as a hopeful sign for what’s next.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

Gallery: 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec)

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