Mercedes-Benz has revealed its new electric CLA, which claims a 792km one-charge range on the worldwide harmonised light vehicle test procedure.
Because of this range, Mercedes is already claiming that the new CLA – which will be a rival to the likes of the Tesla Model 3, the Polestar 2, and the 2026 BMW i3 Neue Klasse saloon – will be the one-litre car for the electric age.
This claim refers to efforts in the 2000s to create cars that would be capable of 1.0-litres per 100km fuel economy, or 282mpg in old money. The only car that ever got close was the strictly limited VW XL1.
The new electric CLA will be a rear-wheel drive car in standard form, using a 272hp (200kW) electric motor powering the rear wheels.
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There is also a four-wheel drive variant which gets an extra 109hp (80kW) motor powering the front wheels (bringing the total to 353hp), but this will be decoupled from those wheels until extra traction or performance is needed, in the interests of efficiency.
That efficiency, claims Mercedes, means 93 per cent of the car’s overall energy storage actually meeting the tarmac under the tyres, and the four-wheel drive CLA 350 4Matic still claims a one-charge range of up to 771km.
Interestingly, the CLA will be one of the few electric cars, thus far, to feature more than one gear. Most EVs use a single reduction gear, powering the wheels more or less directly from the electric motor, but the CLA gets a two-speed gearbox, with a low first gear for instant acceleration, and a higher second gear for greater efficiency in main road and motorway driving scenarios.
Two battery packs will be offered. The top-spec versions get an 85kWh lithium-ion battery with silicon-oxide anodes, which increases the potential energy density and efficiency by 20 per cent compared with current designs.
More affordable CLA versions will come with a 58kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery (cheaper to make and more robust, too) which will have a shorter range, which has not yet been revealed but which is expected to be in the region of 500km.
The CLA includes a cutting-edge 800-volt charging architecture, which means it can accept as much as 320kW of peak fast-charging power, allowing drivers to add as much as 300km of extra range in just 10 minutes’ charging, assuming one can find a DC public charger putting out that much power, which is also not in use, and not broken. The CLA’s battery will charge at either 11kW or 22kW on slower AC power, depending on the model.
For extra efficiency, the CLA will get a “multisource” heat pump heating system, which can warm the cabin using waste heat from the car’s water cooling system for the battery, or from heat from the battery itself, or from heat from the surrounding air.
There’s also a built-in “eco assistant” function that helps you tailor your driving style to get to your destination more easily, and a regenerative braking system that can, in its strongest mode, slow the CLA at up to 3m per second/per second.
The CLA’s on-board computers, as well as being constantly updated by over-the-air software, can also teach themselves as they go, learning from your driving style and regular habits. The software can then not only recommend where you should stop for a charging top-up, but also how long you should stop for and how much charge you should take on.
All of this tech, and the new battery design, adds up to a new platform for the CLA and the models which will be spun off from it. It’s called the MMA platform, and it’s said to incorporate the lessons learned from the ultra-long range EQXX concept car – the one which drove from Stuttgart to the Silverstone racetrack without stopping, and which still had enough charge left for some fast laps.
Markus Schäfer, Mercedes’ chief technology officer, said: “As the inventor of the automobile, Mercedes-Benz has always been a pioneer of ground-breaking drive systems. We recently proved this with the record-breaking Vision EQXX technology programme. With the upcoming MMA vehicles, we are now making this visionary technology available to our customers and getting ever closer to the idea of the one-litre vehicle of the electric age.
“Our new hybrid drive with electric transmission is also setting new standards in terms of efficiency. With the new CLA and the other vehicles based on the MMA architecture, all customers will benefit from efficient technology at the highest level.”
Inside, there are large screens set into a big, vertical dashboard – a new look for Mercedes. The driver gets a 10.25in instrument panel, and an optional head-up display, while there’s a huge 14.9in infotainment screen in the middle. If the front-seat passenger feels left out, they can also have an optional 14in screen of their own.
Mercedes is claiming big advances for the new MB.OS software that runs all this technology. Streaming services – including Netflix and YouTube – are built-in so that you can keep yourself distracted even on those brief charging stops, while Mercedes claims to be the first car maker to integrate a choice of artificial intelligence voice-control assistants into the car – you can choose from ChatGPT, Microsoft, and Google robots as you please.
Merc’s software also includes its own level of artificial intelligence, and the built-in over the air software update set-up is not merely there to allow problems to be fixed remotely – the idea is that the CLA’s systems will evolve and actually improve, and not just the on-screen stuff either. Mercedes says it wants to use software updates to improve the whole vehicle, including the electronic driver assistance systems, as the CLA ages.
All of which is all well and good, but what about the undeniable fact that many car buyers are still reluctant to accept fully electric power, and the fact that the current car market is delicately balanced between those keen to adopt EVs, and those who would rather stick with what they know?
That’s okay, says Mercedes; have a hybrid CLA instead. The MMA platform can support either full or partial electrification, and so the CLA will come with a 1.5-litre petrol hybrid system, running on the fuel-saving Miller combustion cycle, and which will offer a choice of 136hp, 163hp, or 190hp power outputs, with the 48-volt electric hybrid half of the powertrain, using a 1.3kWh battery pack, contributing 27hp (20kW) of that.
Oddly, the hybrid CLA will be front-wheel drive, not rear-wheel as standard, although there will also be four-wheel drive hybrid models. The hybrid CLA uses a new eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Mercedes has said that the hybrid CLA can run on electric power at low speeds (without precisely saying for how long) and that at speeds of under 100km/h it can “sail” along for brief periods with the engine switched off.
In practicality terms, the CLA gets a 405-litre boot out the back, and the electric versions get a large 101-litre “frunk” storage area in the nose.
The new CLA will go on sale later this year.
