Mercedes CLA EQ Review | Why This Car Is the Game-Changer for Mercedes EVs
When it comes to their electric cars, Mercedes-Benz stood out for two reasons. First of all, they developed their electric range to sit alongside their combustion engine cars rather than make electric versions of those cars. And second of all, they weren’t quite as revolutionary as maybe we would have expected, considering that they wore the same badge as the manufacturer who made us give up our horses and adopt four wheels instead. But this new Mercedes-Benz, its new CLA with EQ technology could be about to change all of that, despite the fact that it looks disarmingly similar to the car it replaces. Yet underneath, this is very much the revolution that we’ve come to expect from Mercedes-Benz. Welcome to this week’s road test review. Welcome to the new Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ technology. And as always, welcome to Auto EV. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve always really liked the electric offerings for Mercedes-Benz, but it’s always seemed to me that there’s been a better option available elsewhere. The EQC, a really good medium-sized all electric SUV, but I’d always prefer a Jaguar pace. And of course, when it came to the big sumptuous EQS, their luxury limousine, their electric version of the S-Class in some respects, the BMW i7 just did it that little bit better. And it was the same with the EQE, the BMW i5, I always felt was a better drive. And that’s despite the fact that both of those BMWs sat on multi-energy platforms. So, what’s changed with this car? Well, quite a lot in some respects because gone is the sort of EQ badging. It still is called the CLE with EQ technology to differentiate it from the combustion engine version because that’s the first big change. This is going to come with a combustion engine as well. So, it is a multi-energy platform. No longer are they developing an electric car completely separate to a combustion engine car, but they very much they have favored the EV technology with their new range. And this is the first of them, the CLA. And it’s a small compact four-door saloon car. Now, of course, there’s going to be some people out there that’s going to go, “Well, that’s the fine, but you know, it’s still not as good as my petrol CLA cuz it won’t go as far.” Well, guess what? That’s the revolution because this electric Mercedes-Benz does go as far as the petrol version, as we’re about to find out. But, as always, before we start the full review, let’s take a look at the main bullet points of the new Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ technology. So, the new CLA with EQ technology is, the company tells us, the most emotional and efficient, intuitive and intelligent Mercedes-Benz ever. It has an 85 kW usable capacity battery to deliver a range of up to 492 mi. According to WLTP tests, it has a new 800V architecture with 320 kW DC charging speeds, allowing you to add 200 mi of range in just 10 minutes. The CLA 250 Plus we have here is a single motor car that produces 268 horsepower and prices will start at just over £45,000 here in the UK depending on trim level and before options are fitted. Now, in case you missed that, let me just remind you of those numbers again. A near 500 mile range and the ability to put 200 mi of range into the car in around 10 minutes. And all for less than £50,000. Is this finally the electric car to silence the doubters, to dissuade the naysayers that say electric cars don’t have a future? Well, the only way we can find that out is by putting it through the road test that actual car buyers trust when it comes to choosing their next electric vehicle. And it is the autoe one. It always has been. Right. Let’s start with how the car looks, shall we? Well, there’s no doubting the fact that it’s a Mercedes-Benz. And in case you weren’t sure, they’ve put 142 three-pointed stars across the front of it for you. And that’s just this bit here. And if you don’t if you don’t catch those, you’ve got the big Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star bang in the middle. And in case you miss that one, there’s another one there on the bonnet badge. And in case you miss all of that, on the optional headlights, there’s also a three-pointed star lighting signature. Right, we get it. It’s a Mercedes-Benz. And I do find that a little bit odd that they put so many on it because the three-pointed star is probably one of the most recognizable brand images that you can find in the world today. However, it is very distinctive cuz these are sort of backlit and illuminating. It is quite nice. So, I’m not I’ll forgive them a little bit for that. And it’s quite a handsome little car, the CLA, isn’t it? you know, and it does look, as I say, remarkably like the old one. And that’s the thing. They’ve gone down the route of making sort of like the electric version and the combustion engine the same because they don’t want to separate it out like they’ve done with their previous electric offerings up till now. You know, the EQS, the EQE, and of course their SUVs. And we’ve seen that because obviously we’ve seen the new um, you know, like C GLC electric version SUV that was unveiled at Munich recently. Of course, you get this lovely light bar that stretches across the front there as well. very aerodynamically efficient and that helps with its range. 0.21 drag coefficient, beautifully uh aerodynamically efficient the way they manage the air flow around the car. But as I say, I think it’s quite a handsome little car and of course it’s, you know, the traditional sort of Mercedes-Benz four-door coupe style of thing. And it has grown a little bit in size as we’ll now talk about as we go around the car. But I do like the way they start to look. I really do. This is an AMG line. So this is the medium one. There’s a sport edition, AMG line, and then I think it’s the AMG line, premium edition is the sort of top spec one. But I’ll go through the trims with you a bit later. But yeah, I think we’re off to a good start. Very handsome looking, very distinctly Mercedes-Benz in case you hadn’t realized and you maybe thought you looking at a new BMW. There’s enough telltale signs that it is a Mercedes-Benz. Now, to give you the idea of the size of the car, it’s actually a little bit longer, believe it or not, than the Tesla Model 3, and it’s only 30 mm shorter than the current Mercedes-Benz C-Class. So it does occupy that sort of mediumsiz sort of saloon sector in some respects despite the fact the CLA is the smallest of the sort like the four-door Mercedes-Benz but it has grown over the previous generation CLA. Three trim levels as I suggest you get sport edition uh which is your starter for 10 which this car is. You get 18-in alloy wheels on that as standard. Then you move up to an AMG line which gets 19in alloy wheels as does the AMG line premium edition. So, there’s the three trim levels. That’s the 250 plus. There’s also going to be the 350 H formatic that comes out. So, a dual motor version of the car, but believe it or not, it’s not that much less efficient if you do go for the dual motor car. And great news for you estate car lovers because there’s going to be a shooting brake version of it by the end of the year as well. Fantastic. I’m really looking forward to that car. And as I say, it’s going to be available across um with the EV model and hybrid as well. So, they really are covering all the bases. Again, lot of nice sort of like features on the car in terms of aerodynamic efficiency, but unfortunately they’ve given me a black one, but never mind. Um, you’ve got some nice air curtains that go down the side there. These aerodynamically efficient uh wheels, which do look nicer than the last sort of generation of AMG line arrow wheels and things, the flush door handles that go in and out of the car, you know, obviously when you need to open and close it. The standalone mirrors, you know, on the door panels as well, which contain an awful lot of cameras. There is a huge amount of tech on this car and you will not believe how much tech is on the inside of it, but we’ll go through a little bit later on. Obviously, frameless doors because it is that sort of four-door coupe style of car. So, you get the frameless doors and this lovely sweeping uh rear to the car as well. Massive big glass panoramic sunroof on the car as well, which doesn’t have a blind because it has infrared coating on it to stop the heat getting into and and heating up the cabin of the car as well. So, that’s quite clever. Uh, you get some nice little bits of chrome down the side there, which I don’t mind so much on a Mercedes, although it’s not massively sustainable, but it’s, you know, it does make the car quite distinctive, and I do quite like that bowl shape there. And it’s nicer um than you get on the EQE and EQS cuz it doesn’t have quite so many like pains in it as well. But, yeah, really distinctive um sort of like if you’re used to the CLA style, it’s that four-door coupe style of car. Not quite as anonymous as the EQS and the EQE have been perhaps. Um, certainly not when, you know, in a nicer color with some nice alloy wheels. It does stand out. But very aeroefficient and very Mercedes-Benz. And guess what you get around the back of it? Yay, more stars. Obviously, you get the big one in the center there that doubles as the the boot release as well, which is quite nice. Do like that. And in case you don’t realize that, there’s also the three-pointed star in the rear light signature, which has a lovely light bar that goes across the back of the car there. There’s some nice detailing round about the bottom here. This diffuser section again to help the air flow of the car. And you can really see that more coupoopy like profile that we’ve been used to um with the CLA um in the previous generation of car. I quite like this. It’s quite a handsome little car. As I say, I get it. Maybe the black isn’t quite the best color for it. And you might at first look at it and go, “Oh, I’m not very sure.” It’s one of those kind of It’s nice. As I say, the more you look at it, the more detailing you start to find about it. And it is I think it’s a really good-look little car. And it because it sort of blends into the background a little bit, that helps with it a little bit. It doesn’t look like maybe the EQS just maybe didn’t quite have the sort like feeling of that big luxury car. It didn’t look anything like an S-Class. The fact that the new electric CLA looks like a CLA, I think will help a lot of previous generation CL owners move into the electric version quite smoothly, if that makes sense. But my opinion’s not really worth toffee. Let’s be honest. Your opinion is ho, that’s what’s important. Your opinion. What do you think of the new Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ technology? Does it float your boat? Would you trade out of your petrol, your combustion engine CLA to go into an electric one look that looks like this? Or do you think they haven’t done enough to it? Do you think it should be a bit more radical in its design? Whatever your thoughts are, let me know them down in the comment section down below. Now, despite the looks, it’s not a hatchback. It is a booted well saloon. Well, coupe as Mercedes-Benz would have us uh h talk about 405 liters. I don’t think that’s bad. And I tell you what, it’s quite a big boot. It goes back quite a way. Um there is a split fold uh rear seat. A 604, sorry. Yeah, 40 20 40 split rear bench. I don’t have the number for the total capacity if all that’s folded down. If I find it out after I finished filming, I’ll pop it in the banner below. If not, well, you can make up a number and it’ll be that. Okay. Um, you are limited a little bit by the aperture obviously. Um, because obviously that’s, you know, that’s what you get with a saloon car. Um, so if you’re going to go and buy a fridge freezer out of Curies, you might be struggling a wee bit there, but remember there’s going to be a shooting brake version, which is going to be good, or a state car and other people’s parl. Um, there isn’t really any underlo storage. There’s a tiny little hole there which you could put a worn and triangle in or, you know, like your high viz jacket if you were touring with the car or other little bits and pieces, but I wouldn’t call it underfloor storage. However, there is a boot up at the front and it’s quite big. And believe it or not, you’re also going to get storage up at the front. Even when it’s a combustion engine car, so when the hybrid arrives, it will still have storage up at the front. Now you’re starting to understand why this car is quite a special car that we’re talking about. Because up at the front, you’ve got an additional 101 L of storage. This makes this little car quite practical, I thing. Now, I mean, obviously, it’s got its cable bag in there, but you’d get certainly another carry-on in there. You in fact, you get a carry-on plus the cable bag in there, or, you know, or more soft bags if you’re using rucks sacks and things like that. This is an incredibly practical little car. And as you see, you’ll still get storage when it comes as a hybrid as well. Not as much as that obviously, but still a decent amount of storage as well. I think that’s really impressive. Now, obviously, as I say, it’s one of these sort of four-door coupe style of cars. Um, so you know, getting in and out is a little bit tricky because you got to duck your head down underneath the actual rear pillar, but it’s not bad once you’re in. That’s my driver position. I’m 5’8. I’ve got plenty of knee room. I’ve got plenty of foot room. I can get my feet well underneath the seat and just sortly dance them around. I’m okay for head room. I would think if you’re 6 foot though, that’s where you’re going to sort of struggle. The I can just feel the roof just being just above me. I couldn’t wear my top hat in here. Um, and you do feel a little bit close to this sloping roof line, but as I say, remember it’s it is a four-door coupe. It’s not designed to be a big saloon car. The C-Class will take up that sort of mantle. Um, but I tell you what, for a multi-energy platform, this isn’t bad cuz you got a completely flat floor across uh the car as well. Um, your legs do feel a tiny bit pushed up if you sit with them like that. You can see there, but obviously you will adapt like your drive or your sorry, your seating position. um and slouch down a little bit. So, there is a little bit of, you know, sort of pushing the floor up style of um thing you get in some electric cars, but not as much as you would think. You get the mat pockets on the backs of the front seats, which are these nets, which obviously in about 10, 15 years times will be all loosey goosey and just lying around the place. You get two USB C ports there. You get the nice Mercedes-Benz sort of propeller style uh vents for the back. Um, you get storage in the sense of you get a fold down armrest plus two cup holders plus a little slot in there for putting, I don’t know, mobile phone in or pocket polos or something. ISIS points are nice and easy to get because they’re just the liftoff covers which you’ll pop in the door bin and forget they’re there and you’ll lose them in Sainsbury’s car park or you’ll, you know, they’ll end up rattling around the car somewhere. And you’ve got a very sort of shallowish door bin, but I have to say rear space is good. Now, this is where things really start to get quite, as I say before, revolutionary in some respects. This user interface, this whole operating system is well, I have to be frank with you and say it’s it’s way above my understanding, you know, and I genuinely do mean that. And I think I’m relatively techsavvy, but this is on another level. And it it’s it’s great to see Mercedes-Benz really really sort of pushing the envelope with the technology and it’s it seems to be quite useful technology. It’s not just tech for tech say, “Oh, let’s just put this in it cuz that seems like a right thing to do.” There’s a genuine thought gone into this and it’s just mindblowing what this car is capable of um in some respects. So effectively what you have here is is three. It depends on the model you get or the option you have, but effectively there are three screens here. Okay, so you’ve got this 10 and a/4 in I think driver information display which is very familiar Mercedes. Very very familiar if you’re used to the MBUX system which I love. I really like the way it works. That’s going to look very very familiar to you there. Then you’ve got this 14-in central display here. And then there’s another screen which is an option depending on model. I think you get it standard on the the the AMG line premium edition, the top of the range one. Um, or if nobody’s sitting in it there that it will go off. So, I’ll put some B-roll up there, but means your passenger can, you know, do things on the, you know, the infotainment thing and navigation and they’ve got the train control there that you have here in that respect, but it’s very, very different. It’s really, really different. It’s really clever. Now, I may have to refer to notes with this, so apologies, cuz I had a little briefing from the chat from Mercedes-Benz this morning. Lovely guy, but genuinely, some of it was just going over my head. effectively in here there’s a big supercomput and Mercedes-Benz do use that terminology supercomput and it is capable the calculations that it’s capable of per second would just blow your mind I mean genuinely it’s tens of thousands of um calculations it can do per second it’s just and I said to him I said how do you even measure that and there’s a special word for it the type of thing that it does I I didn’t know so basically what you have here is you have it uses layers Okay. Uh, and this is the latest um, MB operating system. Okay. You’ll notice there’s a little blue Mercedes-Benz avatar if you like or hopefully you can see it um, just floating up there. And it can really sense it. The whole car interacts with you effectively. Okay. and it can sense if you’re getting quite angry about certain things that glows a bit red and it might suggest things to s Did it suggest calm you down a little bit you know would you like to play some soothing music would you like this I mean really wow you know I’ve got a wife for that you know but I don’t need my car doing it but that’s what it does and then you have what’s called zero layer okay so you’ve got this thing here obviously you’ve got things such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto that that goes without, you know, that goes without being said, but you’ve got this zero layer here and then it puts up two things that you use the most often. So, the car’s learning you all the time and it says says, “Right, every time Brian gets in first thing in the morning to to drive his daughter to school, um he listens to the radio and he probably calls somebody call his, you know, other half. He’ll call Liz to say that, you know, the school run went fine.” It’ll put those two things up there. Okay. So, you’ve got a shortcut button straight to them. So, that’s the first thing. Okay. Um, and then you’ve got all these sort of like widgets and things, you know, I think they’re called widgets. Are they tiles, you know, that you can go into and and and and you can move these round, you know, so they’re like your phone when you press and hold your phone, you know, you can shuffle them into different folders. You can do that here. So, again, if you group all your music and audio together, like I do on my phone, you can do that in that folder there. So that will go in there and let you do that. It operates using um so all the time it’s constantly using um Microsoft uh Bing as it search engine and Google AI and chat GPT. So those three things are constantly being used in here as well. Okay. So we’re out today in the CWorlds. Okay. you know, on the UK launch and it will pick up sort of like, you know, you know, the brown tourist signs and things like that. So, if you’re driving through like the local village and you’re, you know, maybe, I don’t know, you might want to know some facts about, you know, the local village you’re driving through, you can ask the car to tell you them or to give you a a a recommendation for day, you know, a nice pub for lunch or things like that. And it’s constantly learning. It’s constantly interacting with you. And and and I find this just I I genuinely have found it quite mind-blowing. And as I say, I’m I’m not even talking about half of what this is capable of because I genuinely don’t really understand it. But it’s it is unbelievable what this thing can actually do. You’ve also got a little camera there as well. So you can have it can you can have teams calls in the car. Now, if you do do that, so obviously from a safety point of view, because we’ll talk about this in a bit more depth, if you’re using say teams, if you’ve got a, you know, you’re driving along, you right, I’ve got a team’s call now with the, you know, the guys in the office. Um, they can see you, but you can’t see them. So, it doesn’t give like your laptop all the, you know, the faces up on their cameras here, but you can have a team’s call, you know, using that camera system there. Now, what it does do from another safety point of view as well is if your passenger because you can play games with it, you know, like proper computer games, you can link a mobile to it to use the mobile as a controller. Um, and if I’m driving along and say Liz was doing that, I mean, not that she does, she doesn’t, none of us play computer games, leave my daughter. But, you know, if she was doing that and I kept looking across, the camera picks that up and it gives you a warning. It’s like three strikes and you’re out. I think it gives you two warnings, then it shuts the screen down so you’re not getting distracted. So, you know, then that’s really good as well. But look at it, you know, it’s it’s incredible this whole thing. And as I say, it’s constantly evolving. It’s constantly uh learning you your habits. And as I say, if you’ve got this um Oh, that’s that’s different sounds you can have as well. So, that’s a bit like the BMW system, digital sounds. um you know so you know your avatar up there as I say if it’s it it might suggest to you oh every time you get in you play greatest hits radio would you like me to you know you know start playing greatest hits radio if you don’t particularly switch it on or whatever so it learns your habits and and it the whole thing is this constant conversation between you and the car effectively unbelievable genuinely really unbelievable and that’s what I mean it’s a real it’s not tech just for tech’s sake you know it’s But, you know, it it’s genuinely useful stuff. And obviously there’s things like voice activation as well you can use that you can interact with it as well. Um, but as I say, the fact it picks up on your moods, I just find that it it’s far beyond me to understand. And of course, you can use it just as, you know, that you you would use any other normal infotainment system as well. So, you get a great um, you know, the sat nav there. It uses Google Maps as I say now. So, that’s excellent. So all the Google stuff um from the Google Maps which I really I use for my navigation all the time. So that’s what it’s actual default navigation actually is. So you don’t have to go into you know CarPlay or stuff to to activate your Google maps. And as I say if you go into these different tiles here you can activate up various different things you know. So you get Disney Plus YouTube you know obviously you can you have to subscribe to things like that but you can put those in there and log into that. So you could watch, you know, Disney Plus your late series you’re watching while you’re charging the car up or stuff like that. You can have that as well. And then as I say, there’s games in there as well which you can have across this. It’s just phenomenal. I honestly and as I say, I could be here for hours talking about it and I talk too much anyway. But as I say, I genuinely don’t understand the majority of it, but it’s brilliant. So there we go. So that’s what you get with all of this new MOS. And as I say, that’s why I think this is a real technological marvel, this car. But the interior itself is a really, really nice design. I I I do actually quite like the fact that you’ve got this screen. And he’s saying it’s it’s angled vertically like this because they’ve they’ve looked at it as to where it’s going to get the less um intrusion from light. So you’re not going to get glare, you know, and even if you do, if it comes through the roof and you got bright sunshine shining on it, it then adapts itself to to to darken and things like that. So you can still see it. Um big center console here, this floating console. So there’s good storage. You get your two uh cup holders there. You’ve also got storage underneath here as well, which is excellent. Um you’ve got some buttons along here. So you got a dynamic select there, your parking camera, switching the screen on and off, hazards, uh the microphone obviously for using voice activation, and then volume and stuff. There’s a wireless charging pad that your phone can just sit in there. You’ve got um a nice relatively deep center console in there with a little removable tray. You’ve got decent sized door bins which aren’t too far down the door. They’re a nice height actually. I quite like them. Um and then obviously as well you get a glove box with the car too. Now the seating position is lovely. Really is. You get an excellent driving position. You get this lovely three-spoke steering wheel here. This is still got the Mercedes-Benz sort of touch sensitive controls on it like we’ve been used to with their other products, their other EQ products. But again, I have to admit, I don’t mind them so much, you know. So, for volume, just a little swipe there, you know, and then, you know, set cruise control and everything there. Of all the touch sensitive controls you get in cars, as much as I don’t like them, the Merc ones tend to be the best. The other nice thing about it is the um the column selector for the transmission, which is up here. Um, you know, you also start the car by pushing the end of it. So, that’s the start button on the end of that. And then obviously it’s your usual, you know, reverse up, you know, drive all the way down, neutral in the middle, and then push in for park. But this also alters your brake regen as well. So you push it away to I think we’ll do it when we go for drive, but you push it away to increase the brake regen and pull it back towards you to decrease it. That’s nice. Um, and then obviously obviously your wipers are over on this side here with your wash wipe at the end. And that’s your on your indicator as well. So it’s a really nice cabin. And I have to admit there’s a really really nice like feel into the cabin. Seats are very comfortable as well. Um and you get these adjustable head restraints which slide in and out rather than up and down. So they’re really good as well. So you got a perfect sort of like position for those to really sort of you know you rest your head back and will keep your head in a nice upright position and god forbid you do have an accident. And then of course you get things such as the usual Mercedes-Benz seat controls on the door panel here and things like mirror controls and stuff like that. Right, I don’t need to go on about it. That’s just there’s so much going on in that. There’s so much to talk about that we could be here for us. In fact, let me just look at my notes to make sure I haven’t missed anything. What have we talked about? Virtual assistant with chat GBT Google and Microsoft Bing Google Gemini to help answer the questions. Yeah, I made a note of all that. Oh, it’s connected to the intelligent cloud and keeps the carpet to say that to you as well. So, it’s connected to the Mercedes-Benz intelligent cloud. So, you know, in your smartphone you get, you know, the things you’ve got the latest software update available to download and you do that. This does it automatically. So, it knows you know if there’s an update available for it, it can download that and then there’ll be certain apps that will it will say to you, do you want to download this latest version of this app? And it can then do it say overnight for instance. So, if you’re, you know, you got the car parked up or you’re charging somewhere while you’re in the office or something like that, you can tell the car to to update the apps when it’s doing that. It’s just really clever stuff and way above my mortal brain to understand what that is capable of. Um, but it will also use the navigation system as well to plot routes for you using sort of like, you know, the the state of charge. Uh, it knows how many charging bays are in use at a certain charge station, so it can plan out a route for you based on stuff like that. Just mind-blowing. Really, really clever. I think that’s one of the biggest biggest um technological advancements in cars I have seen in all the years of doing this job. What this is actually capable of. I think it’s incredible. I really do. Now, if all that’s tech’s not enough to get you hot under the collar, wait till you hear this. 85 kilowatt hour usable capacity NMC battery, which should give, according to WLTP tests on the CLA250, 492 mi of range. And Mercedes-Benz tell me it gets really close to that in the real world as well. Even the 350 that’s coming out, the formatic with a dual motor gets 479 miles of range, 320 kW charging speed. Okay, it’s an 800vt architecture. And as I said right at the start, you can put 200 mi of range in this car in 10 minutes if you use a fast enough charger. But the usual benchmark of 10 to 80% given the fact it is quite a big battery is achieved in 22 minutes. It has an onboard 11 kW charger as standard. So if you do have access to an 11 kW wall box, you go from flat to full in 9 hours. But if it’s a more likely 7 kW wall box you’ve got like I have, then it’s 13 1/2 hours to go from flat to full. The car comes with a heat pump as standard as well. And it’s also uh an airside heat pump that it uses which is a much more efficient style of heat pump because it uses the waste heat from the battery, the drivetrain and the ambient temperature to operate it rather than a separate sort like heating system in the car. This is a really impressive little car in terms of its efficiency, Mercedes-Benz say. And as I say, I can’t wait to put it to a test at a later date. Right. So, now we’ve discussed all the tech and all the rest of it. Let’s get it out on the road and see how it actually drives. Um, so this is the 250 that I’ve got. So, it’s a single motor car, which means 272 horsepower, not to 60 in 6.7 seconds. So, not blisteringly fast, but fast enough, I’d suggest. You know, if you want more, there’s the CLA 350 formatic, which obviously is dual motor. Uh, and that gets 348 horsepower and that will bring the not to 60 time down to about 5 seconds. So that’s well quicker. Um, but to me that’s not really what this car is about. The the thing that really, and I mean when I say impresses me, I mean really impresses me about this car is how smooth it is. It feels like it just glides down the road this car. And that’s also helpful in terms of, you know, stringing a set of bends together. It just seems to glide between each bend. Now, the suspension setup, it’s McFersonen struts all round. You get a three-link arrangement at the front, multi-link at the back, which is great. The steering’s a tiny little bit light. I’d suggest in the normal mode, you’ve got obviously different driving modes you can go into through the dynamic select button down here. So, if I now go into sport, you’ve got comfort, sport, eco, and individual. It weights up a little bit, but it still feels a tiny little bit artificial. I’d say if you’re into a pin sharp, you want a pin sharp driver’s tool, then dare I suggest a BMW i4 is going to be the better car for you. But I don’t think that’s really what the CLA’s party trick is about. The the party trick with this car is how smooth and how refined that it feels. Now, there’s a little bit of road noise from it. There’s no doubt about that. But the suspension and the the dampers are really well judged. I come along just like a a nasty little part of the road earlier there. That’s I came down the same piece of road in the car I’ve driven down here today in the Nissan area Nismo and it was really really bouncing around. You know, it felt really uncomfortable there. You could feel the suspension working in the Mercedes, but it wasn’t transmitting all of that imperfection into the cabin. So, that’s the key I think with this car. So, it handles that really, really well. But as I say, up on this sort of like smooth open road here, you lift off and the car just glides. It just keeps going. Now, there’s a two-speed transmission in the car, and that’s key to its efficiency. So, bit like the Porsche, the Tyan has, you’ve got one gear that effectively sort of gets you off the line and gets you up to speed and then another gear then takes over, which is a more efficient way of doing it. And that is so, as I say, the key to this car’s party trick of its efficiency along with the aerodynamics of it obviously, but as I say, when you drive along here at 60 mph and lift your foot off the accelerator, the car just maintains a speed and just keeps going. It’s a really interesting way to drive. It really teaches you to be quite smooth with your inputs on the car. You’ve got four levels of brake regen with it as well, which again, I really like the way they’ve done it. They’ve done it on this transmission stock here. So if I push it away from me, I now get intelligent recuperation. So um if there’s a car in front of me for instance that starts to slow down, the car will slow down. If it moves away again and pulls away and it gets a distance ahead of me, it won’t keep activating the brakes whenever I lift off. There’s plenty cars do that type of thing. Um you’ve then got no recuperation at all. So you know, nothing at all. The car will just coast. Um, or if I pull it back towards me, we get normal and then strong recuperation. There’s nothing behind me. It really pulls the car up and it pulls it to a standill. That’s really impressive. If you’re a fan of one pedal driving, you’re going to get on well with this car. That’s lovely the way it does that. Yeah. So, as I say, that’s quite clever stuff. And all of that is geared towards the efficiency, you know, making the car go the range that it does. But just using it as a normal car, it just feels that’s the standout thing for me is how the CLA doesn’t really stand out. Does that make sense? You know, it’s a car that just allows you to get on with, you know, the task of driving it. You know, it doesn’t there’s nothing wild and wacky about it. It’s just a really good car. You just get in it and just use it like a generally standard, you know, MercedesBenz. It’s quiet. It’s It’s really comfortable as well. That’s one thing I’ve noticed as well driving, you know, that I’ve done today in the car. The seat holds you really, really well. You’ve got nice support down the, you know, the bolsters. There’s a good length in the squab. You get a really good driving position in the car. There’s really good visibility out of it. I would say if you’re a taller driver just watch because I say you are I’m aware of that sort of headlining being there. So just watch if you’re a bit of a taller driver you need to you know do a distance. The other thing I’ve noticed is or dare to suggest haven’t noticed is the screens. You know now I’ve obviously driven Mercedes with a hyper screens before and this is obviously sort of like the new version of that hyperscreen style. So as a car coming up on a single track road. Um, so the fact that it sort of da suggests blends into the background and doesn’t actually sort of like distract you, I think is to be commended cuz that is the fear that we’ve got now, isn’t it? With so much on cars being done through screens is, you know, the fact that, you know, there’s so much there that you soon become distracted by. You don’t. It very easily fades into the background. You’ve got the usual lovely, you know, clear Mercedes-Benz instrumentation panel in front of you here, but then this Google Maps tell you, this 14in central screen just, you know, it just works. It just looks lovely. Everything’s really clear and easy to use on the move, you know, so adjusting temperature and things like that. Yeah, you’ve got to do it through the screen, but it’s nice and easy to do it through the screen. The buttons on the steering wheel, yes, they’re touch sensitive, and I don’t normally like them, but at least the Merc ones do work quite well. I’m really impressed with this car. I mean, I’m really impressed with it. It handles well. It handles well enough. As I say, there are the BMW is a sharper tool to drive, but you wouldn’t be disappointed with this. But given the fact that it’s so good at the other stuff, the the the high-speed cruising, the refinement, the comfort, and then just the way that it it’s so easy to get on with, and then just has this lovely sort of like, you know, quiet persona about it that just glides you down the road. I think this is a real gamechanging car. I really do. I think they’ve really judged this well and it’s a car that I think this is a car that will change a lot of petra combustion engine Mercedes-Benz drivers into electric Mercedes-Benz drivers. I really do. And I think there’ll be an awful lot of electric car drivers will move to Mercedes-Benz because of the efficiency, because of the range, because of um you know everything sort of like you know that you get with this car. And the fact that it’s got this technology and this amount of usable and useful technology in this car, I think will attract a lot of younger buyers, you know, younger buyers to Mercedes-Benz who maybe haven’t considered them before, but you know, like the tech that a lot of data suggest the newer Chinese manufacturers are coming out with. You know, the the the technology, the connectivity, the message of sustainability as well. you know, is a big message of sustainability with this with this car. You know, they talk a lot about the whole life costs of it, you know, and how much impact that it has on the environment, you know, over a life cycle of the car. All of that I think will will really turn on younger buyers into Mercedes-Benz uh buyers. So, all of that combined, I think this is a real standout car. I really do. And as I say, it’s weird because it doesn’t really stand out. You know, they’ve not made some weird futuristic looking concept, you know, making, you know, big bold claims for it. It’s just a MercedesBenz saloon car that happens to be electric. But now all the sort of the compromises that we used to have with electric cars, you know, the low R or the range that wasn’t maybe quite as good or the fact that it takes so long to charge and things like that. All of those arguments have now gone, which makes this an absolute 100% winner when it comes to new EVs. And this is the future. This really is. And I tell you what, the future looks good. And it wears a Mercedes badge. Now, here’s another thing that blows me away about this car. Because when I started doing this job, reviewing electric cars, I thought when I got to the stage where I’m talking about an electric car that was capable of nearly 500 miles and could be charged almost as quickly, you know, as putting petrol in a normal combustion engine car, we’d be talking about some 100,000 luxury, you know, saloon like the next generation EQS or the third generation Porsche Thai car, you know, that style of car. But no, it’s in this a small compact four-door family car. Pricewise, I think this is good value for money. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s cheap. I’m saying it’s I think it’s good value for money for what you get. It starts with this 250 in the sport edition um at £45,615. So, that’s your starter for 10. Um, you move up to the AMG line, the same, the 250, but you know, better equipment level, the AMG line, and that costs another £3,760 at £49375. If you want the full fat AMG line premium edition, then you need to find another £2,395 over that. And that gives that car a list price of 51770. And you’re getting near 500 mi of range with that capability. And as I say, for round about the 50 grand mark, and it wears a Mercedes-Benz badge, many of them, as we’ve seen before, I genuinely do think this is the car that’s going to change the game for an awful lot of people. I think this is the car that’s going to turn an awful lot of combustion engine drivers into electric car drivers. I really do. Right. Competition. Well, it’s got bigger, hasn’t it? The CLA uh over the previous car. Uh, as I say, slightly longer than a Tesla Model 3. And price point wise, that’s the car you’re going to be thinking about, the Tesla Model 3. And, um, with that, of course, comes the other cars that that’s been competing with. So, the BMW i4 cuz it’s a similar thing, isn’t it? That sort of four-door coupe style rather than actually be a 3 series, but remember the Noi class, the new 3 series is coming out, i3, uh, very, very soon. But there’ll be an electric C-class to compete with that. I would suggest Polestar 2, that’s also got to be considered as well. Starting to feel a bit long in the tooth. Polestar now. still love it, but it’s starting to feel a bit long in the tooth. But we’ve seen some new um cars move into this market space over the last couple of years as well, haven’t we? Of course, we’ve had the the BYD Seal, which I think is a brilliant car. I think that’s BYD’s best car. Really good car to drive. Really efficient. Um and good value for money. Talking of value for money, MG, they’ve getting in the act as well, haven’t they, with their new IM5, that sort of luxury subbrand. they’ve got huge amount of power um you know and a lot of tech on that car for something similar money to this. So that’s a car you’re also going to consider as well now. And of course there’s the Hyundai IonX 6 which is again that sort of swoopy sort of styling really sort of like avantgard looking car and it’s about to have a facelift as well. So that’s a car to consider. There’s also another new car moving into this market space which I’m going to be testing. I’m actually filming this on the Tuesday. um on Friday, the same this week, I’m going to be driving that and that’s the Mazda 6E. So, there’s plenty of competition and there’s going to be more as well. So, who says all we’re buying is SUVs? Because saloons do seem to be making a bit of a comeback, folks. So, here’s what we like and also what we don’t like about the new Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ technology. Well, we think the car sets a new benchmark for range and efficiency within the electric car world. It has typically neat Mercedes-Benz styling. It offers huge advancement but with well integrated and useful technology. And on the face of it, it does actually appear to offer reasonable value for money against its peers. We don’t like well there is a lack of rear headroom due to that more coupe-like styling for taller passengers. Perhaps they’ve overdone the branding just a little bit. But for us, there’s very little else to complain about. Whenever I’ve reviewed an electric Mercedes-Benz before, um, they’ve all been a bit a lot of pomp and ceremony surrounding them without really much to back them up. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve been good cars. I have enjoyed the electric offerings that Mercedes-Benz has given us so far, but they didn’t really change the way we think about electric cars or how we use them. Perhaps they were more designed to change the way that we think about Mercedes-Benz than that. And if that was the case, then maybe they did okay. But this car is very different to those previous offerings from the company because this is the car that will change how we think about electric cars. This is the car that will quash the naysayers. This is the car that will change how we view electric mobility moving forward. The most standout thing about the CLA with EQ technology is the fact that it doesn’t stand out by trying to be something wild and wacky. It is just at the end of the day a normal Mercedes-Benz saloon car. And because of that, it makes it very, very easy to use. And the technology that it comes with is a true advancement onwards. Finally, we’ve got a Mercedes-Benz to get really excited about. And finally, we’ve got an electric car to quash those naysayers, as I say. And it’s been down to Mercedes-Benz, the company that got us off of horses and into cars in the first place, that are now changing the way that we think about electric cars moving forward. And that is worth commending them for. Thank you for watching another road test review on AutoEV. As always, please make sure that you are subscribed to the AutoEV channel. Then when you’ve done that, make sure you turn on your notifications so that you get an alert when our next video is uploaded and it’s gone live. If you have enjoyed this week’s review, and obviously I hope you have, give it a little thumbs up, and of course, as always, leave me your thoughts in the comments section down below. Let me know what you think about the new Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ technology. Is there enough stars on it for you? Um, now, if you’re a big fan of social media, then you can find us across on the usual platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, X, all the rest of it. So, if you’d like to give us a follow there, we’d certainly appreciate it. And if you’re interested in buying an electric car, might not buy a new Mercedes-Benz CLA, maybe you’re thinking about, I don’t know, I want a Mercedes-Benz used offerings, but you want to know a bit more about it. How do you find out? Well, here’s how. Stay in the Auto EV homepage on our YouTube channel, and just at the top there, you’ll find a magnifying glass. Type the name of the car you’re interested in buying in there. And of course, if it’s been a new electric car in the UK in the last 6 years, we’ll have subjected it to the actual road test that car buyers trust when it comes to choosing their next electric car, the autoe one. Of course, all that remains for me to say is thank you once again for watching. Thank you for your continued support. I’ll see you again soon.
In this video, we take an in-depth look at the all-new 2025 Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ Technology — a fully electric compact luxury car that could be one of the most significant EV launches from Mercedes-Benz to date.
Join us as we explore why the electric CLA is being hailed as one of the most efficient electric cars ever built, combining Mercedes luxury with cutting-edge EQ electric innovation and a futuristic design language that sets a new standard for the brand.
✅ In this review, we cover:
Full walkaround and design overview of the 2025 Mercedes CLA EV
Electric powertrain and performance – range, efficiency, and charging
Interior design, tech, and comfort – including the latest MBUX Hyperscreen
Driving impressions – handling, acceleration, and real-world efficiency
Key specs & pricing insights for potential buyers
Why this model could be a turning point in Mercedes’ electric strategy
⚡ Why the CLA EQ Matters:
The Mercedes-Benz CLA EQ isn’t just another EV — it’s a glimpse into the future of Mercedes design and engineering. Built on Mercedes’ new MMA platform, the CLA promises next-generation range efficiency, ultra-fast charging, and a luxury experience tailored for the electric age.
In this video:
00:00 – Introduction
00:57 – Titles
01:04 – Meet the car
04:08 – Styling
10:22 – Practicality
14:06 – Interior
26:53 – Usability
28:32 – Performance & Handling
38:01 – Pricing
39:38- Competition
41:24 – Pros & Cons
42:07 – Summary
Whether you’re a prospective buyer searching for your next premium electric car, or an EV enthusiast interested in the future of sustainable performance, this review gives you everything you need to know about Mercedes’ latest electric innovation.
