Mercedes-Benz really wants us to believe that the new CLA is revolutionary. First teased as a concept in 2023, Mercedes promised that the forthcoming production car would offer impressive range and efficiency thanks to revolutionary tech initially previewed in the Vision EQXX concept.
Mercedes kept hyping the CLA up, drip-feeding us information with the implication that this was it—the Mercedes that would make Mercedes Mercedes again. Now, the production car is here, and while the range is impressive (likely around 400 miles on the EPA cycle for the single-motor model) not much else is.
Photo by: Mercedes-Benz
The CLA is a reflection of the hard reality that Mercedes—and other brands—currently face. It’s caught between regulators pushing for EVs and customers who aren’t giving up internal-combustion engines as quickly as many thought. So, it has to continue down the expensive path of investing in both types of propulsion, while also fending off the existential threat of Chinese EVs that significantly undercut them on price.
The CLA rides on a new platform called Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture, or MMA for short. Breaking with its previous approach, this platform allows for both internal-combustion and all-electric propulsion, which is inherently a compromise. Engineers use the term “package protection,” which, in car development, is when you leave space for a component you may need to use. A great example is the current-generation 911. Porsche left space in the transmission for an electric motor even though the company was undecided at that point whether it would make a hybrid model.
There’s a lot of package protection that goes into a shared EV/combustion platform. You’ve got to build in height fora big battery pack in the floor, and have a long hood with room for the engine. But for either the combustion or electric versions, you’re left with a big space that goes unused. That means extra material, extra weight, and extra cost for nothing.
Photo by: Mercedes-Benz
The CLA is a reflection of the hard reality that Mercedes—and other brands—currently face.
Not all EVs that share a combustion platform are bad. BMW in particular has done well with the i4 and i5, but even those are compromised. Both are awkwardly tall, making things challenging for designers and worse for aerodynamicists—frontal area is a function of height and width, and you want to get that as small as possible—and they’re heavy. The reason the new BMW M5 is so heavy is not simply because it’s a hybrid; it’s because of all the extra material that goes into accommodating a fully electric powertrain in the same bodyshell.
And the CLA is quite heavy. The top-level CLA350 weighs 4,706 pounds—143 pounds more than a base short-wheelbase S-Class in Europe. Surely the gas-powered CLA will be lighter, but the point here is that neither it nor the CLA EV are as light as they could be.
Mercedes actually made a dedicated EV platform for its EQE and EQS models, but consumers roundly rejected them, at least, in part, because of their odd design. A design that reflected a less compromised approach to EV engineering. And now, BMW will soon release a pure-EV platform with the upcoming iX3.
Photo by: Mercedes-Benz
To play devil’s advocate, it’s actually impressive given all these compromises that Mercedes made such an efficient EV. There’s a plethora of good hardware here: an 800-volt architecture that enables faster charging among many other benefits, new motors designed in-house, silicon-carbide inverters, a more energy-dense battery pack, and a two-speed transmission for the rear motor.
The CLA’s drag coefficient is low at 0.21 cD compared with 0.23 cD for the old CLA—though that gain is offset somewhat by the new car’s larger frontal area. And the internal-combustion version has an interesting 48-volt hybrid system.
Photo by: Mercedes-Benz
But all of that is paired with the worst instincts of 2020s Mercedes. Chintzy design with three-pointed stars everywhere you look, an interior that eschews buttons for yet more screens, and LED ambient lighting on seemingly every single surface possible. While I haven’t sat in the car yet, it appears to be what too many modern Mercedes-Benz models are—a triumph of style over substance.
Oh, and did I mention the CLA features an AI-powered in-car radio app made in partnership with Will.i.am? I think you get the picture.
Mercedes wanted us to bring to mind the great models of its past in hyping up the new CLA. I was hoping this could be another 190E moment, but it’s not. That car was totally uncompromising: This isn’t.
To be fair, Mercedes can’t build cars like it did 40 years ago, and that’s been true for some time. And while the CLA promises some good things, I have a hard time imagining it’s a return to the glory days.
