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Mercedes has gone all-out with the new CLA Electric, because it’s a small electric car with one of the longest ranges of any EV on sale in the UK. It’s a handsome little thing and absolutely packed with clever tech, but it’s not very spacious inside, and you’ll struggle to hit its claimed efficiency.

It’s not the only swoopy electric saloon on sale, as it shares the stage with the BMW i4, BYD Seal and venerable Tesla Model 3. None of them can match the CLA’s gargantuan claimed range, though.

At a glance the CLA Electric looks like a sleek, regular saloon car, rather than the hyper-futuristic, pebble-shaped EQE and EQS saloons which came before it. You’ll soon notice the similarities though, with ultra-smooth surfaces and an even-sleeker roofline than on the old CLA.

While the front and rear light bars look great, it also feels as though there are a million-and-one Mercedes badges dotted around the car; a bit tacky, to be honest, especially with the light-up badge and grille at the front.

Mercedes-Benz CLA: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 478-484 miles
Efficiency: 4.7-5.0 miles per kWh
Battery size: 85kWh
Max charge speed: 320kW
Charge time AC: 9hrs, 10-100%, 11kw
Charge time DC: 22mins, 10-80%, 320kw
Charge port location: Right rear
Power outputs: 272hp. 354hp

The cabin is even more out-there, as you get a vertical series of displays in place of a typical dashboard, flanked by two jet engine-like vents. There are no ifs or buts about it, the screen-heavy dashboard is as Marmite as it gets. Tech-lovers will be all over it, but it certainly feels un-carlike, especially with the optional third display for your passenger.

Still, the infotainment system is highly impressive; quick with easy-to understand menus and sharp graphics, but the steering wheel-mounted touchpad is unintuitive and the climate controls are annoying to use on the move.

You get loads of space up front in the CLA Electric. The front seats are very comfortable and highly adjustable, while there’s plenty of storage space thanks to the centre console shelf, cupholders, big door bins and separate phone charging pad. Material quality also feels higher than in the rest of Mercedes’ model range, except for the scratchy plastics under the dashboard and lower door cards.

It’s not quite as roomy in the back. There’s enough legroom for adults to get comfortable, and the thin glass roof reclaims some of the precious headroom that the sleek silhouette steals, but the floor is set quite high so you don’t have much under-thigh support.

You only get a 405-litre boot, which is smaller than in the BMW i4 and Tesla Model 3, but the 101-litre front boot is handy.

At the moment you can only choose the CLA 250+, which has a single 272hp electric motor and up to a claimed 484 miles of range. Only the new BMW iX3 offers more range at 500 miles to a charge, but it has a much larger battery to achieve that.

The CLA Electric excels on the road, because it’s highly refined and very comfortable around town - at least in the front. Back seat passengers will find it a little bumpy on bad roads, but the CLA glides over motorways and is a very stable car to chuck into corners on a twisty road.

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The CLA Electric starts at just under £46,000 in entry-level Sport Edition trim, while the range-topping AMG Line Premium kicks off at a smidge under £52,000. That’s very well priced considering the BMW i4 range starts at £51,000 and offers over 150 miles less range.

The Tesla Model 3 is more competitively priced, coming in at under £40,000 for the entry-level model, but the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive version costs almost £45,000. That’s still less than the Mercedes, but it gets 466 miles of range, and the interior is very underwhelming by comparison.

The BMW i4 is a more compelling argument as it has an arguably more attractive cabin and it’s more fun to drive, but it’s not as clever or as efficient as the CLA Electric, and its range is far shorter.

As standard on the Mercedes you get a panoramic roof, LED lights, that enormous screen, a selfie and video camera, park assist and the illuminated grille, as well as 18-inch alloys and a suite of safety tech.

The CLA Electric is very comfortable and easy-to-drive, but it’s not particularly exciting

In town

Mercedes has nailed the CLA Electric’s manners when it comes to town driving. The light steering offers decent feel; combined with smooth, solid acceleration makes it easy to flick around corners and dart through traffic.

The CLA Electric is more comfortable than most EVs, soaking up bumps in its stride, but we still got jiggled about on rough roads and felt the sharpest of potholes thud through the cabin in our test car on 18-inch wheels. The 19-inch wheels might spoil things, somewhat.

The brakes have been calibrated really well, considering most EVs tend to feel grabby at low speed. You get none of that in the CLA Electric, and it’s easy to come to a smooth stop. The brakes can feel a bit soft when you initially press them as a result, but that’s easy to get used to.

It’s a doddle to park, with a suite of cameras and assistance systems as standard, as well as a fantastic augmented-reality parking feature that shows you if a space is big enough for the car. Handy, because rear-visibility isn’t great due to the slim windows all-round.

On the motorway

Motorway miles are no problem for the slippery Mercedes, with its aero-optimised shape making for quiet motorway cruising with little wind noise. It’s effortless getting up to speed in the CLA Electric, with plenty of shove from its electric motor and a clever two-speed gearbox for maximum efficiency at high speeds.

There’s very little road noise as the cabin is well-insulated, and the steering that feels agile in town has enough feel at speed to make for stable, secure lane changes. The suspension settles down nicely at the national speed limit, so you’re not bounced around when you go over motorway dips.

The standard-fit lane assist takes some of the strain out of long-distance drives, but the self-lane-changing feature is a bit of a faff to engage; you’re better off doing it yourself.

On a county lane

The CLA Electric’s comfort-oriented suspension means that it doesn’t feel all that sporty on a twisty road, but it’s far from out of place when you’re carving through corners.

It has buckets of grip, where it feels settled and composed through corners. It’s not unsettled by bumpy roads, and there’s enough forward visibility to put your mind at ease when travelling down hedge-lined, single-track country lanes.

While they lack that initial bite in the name of low-speed smoothness, the brakes feel powerful and the steering isn’t so light as to feel disconnected from the wheels. It’s not as fun as a BMW i4, but you’ll still have a pleasant time on your favourite B-road in the CLA Electric.

You get a rather spacious cabin in the CLA Electric, but the boot is smaller than in its alternatives

Mercedes has made the most of the CLA Electric’s cabin space, with a pair of highly-adjustable front seats that make it easy to get comfortable behind the wheel and plenty of storage cubbies for odds and ends.

The large door bins are handy, while there’s a big lower ‘shelf’ under the centre console for things you don’t mind being on display, as well as a hidden cubby between the seats. The central cupholders are large enough for big water bottles, with funky little pop-out spacers for slinky little cans of energy drink or small coffees.

Space in the back seats

Where the CLA Electric’s sloping roofline might have you concerned, there’s actually a lot of room in the back of the small, swoopy saloon car. The full-length glass roof means there’s decent headroom unless you’re very tall, as it extends back beyond the tops of your passengers’ heads, while there’s a decent amount of leg space too.

Our rear-seat passenger complained about sitting in the back though, because they were bounced around more than those in the front on bumpy rounds. Something to bear in mind, should you often travel with two -or -three passengers.

The only real downside is the low-mounted position of the rear seat bench in order to achieve that head space, because your thighs don’t really get any support as you’re so close to the floor. You get two ISOFIX mounting points in the back.

It’s still more spacious inside than a BMW i4, and there’s no hump in the floor in the Mercedes, but it’s not as capacious back there as in a Tesla Model 3.

Boot space

A 405-litre boot means the CLA Electric lags behind the the BMW i4 (470 litres) and the Tesla Model 3 (594 litres) for luggage space in the back, and while the boot opening is a nice, rectangular shape, there’s still a bit of a load lip to contend with. The BMW’s hatchback tailgate is far more convenient for loading in bulky items.

The Mercedes’ calling card, however, is its enormous 101-litre front boot (frunk), one of the biggest in any car on sale today. The capacity doesn’t change between the rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive versions, either.

The rear boot itself isn’t a great shape, because it’s rather shallow and pinched by the seat backs. There’s also a lack of under-floor storage space, and while you can just leave the charging cables in the frunk, it’s a faff to open compared to the boot.

Lots of cutting-edge tech which ought to make your life easier, but it’s not all that convincing

The unofficial talking point of the CLA Electric isn’t its slippery shape or massive electric range, but the larger-than-life dashboard which more closely resembles Piccadilly Circus than a Mercedes.

It comes equipped with a 14.0-inch central display for the infotainment and a digital instrument cluster for the driver, with an optional third screen (also 14.0 inches) for the passenger.

The graphics are crisp and clear across the board, and Mercedes has equipped the CLA Electric with a cabin-facing camera should you wish to take a selfie on a family trip, or if you need to take an emergency conference call from the car (when you’re safely parked at the side of the road, of course).

You’ll find the menus are easy to navigate and while the screen is responsive, it can be a bit laggy if you’re too quick with your swiping. It’s going to take a while to get used to the dashboard’s outlandish appearance, too, and it’s irritating to use climate controls.

Otherwise the CLA Electric's cabin is rather swish, with lots of premium materials to choose from such as leather, vegan leather, wood, aluminium or even hemp fibre for the trims. The seats not only look great but are comfortable too, and Mercedes has fitted the CLA Electric with an AI assistant software that can answer a load of questions and even find you an address and plug it into the sat-nav for you.

It’s not totally fool-proof though, sometimes getting it wrong, but the sat-nav itself is great, even going so far as to give you an augmented-reality view of the real world with arrows on the driver’s display telling you where to go. BMW has the same AR tech in its cars, though, so it’s not a novelty.

There are a fair few scratchy plastics around the cabin, too, notably on the lower door cars, lower centre console and under the dashboard which is a shame considering how nice the rest of the interior is.

The electric range is what makes the CLA so remarkable, offering a claimed 484 miles to a charge in the CLA 250+ Sport model, edging out the range-topping EQS saloon which can only manage a puny 481 miles by comparison. Only the new BMW iX3 can beat that figure with a 500-mile range, but it uses a larger battery to do so, and you’ll pay more to top it up as a result.

It’s the CLA Electric’s efficiency and light weight which offers it such a figure, with a low-drag shape and advanced wheel hubs and motors which allow the small saloon to coast for a very long time when you’re not using the motors. A totally flat floor with aerodynamic covers for the suspension bits under the car help with that efficiency, too, but we still couldn’t match Mercedes’ claimed range figure in our testing.

We only achieved a figure of 4.1mi/kWh when testing the CLA on country lanes and A-roads in the UK. That’s impressive efficiency compared with alternatives, but means a maximum range of 357 miles in the real world, only 73% of the claimed total.

Even the most light-footed driver on the initial European test drive managed to achieve 4.8mi/kWh for 408 miles, which while better, is still a good way off the official figure.

Mercedes has built a rapid 320kW charging rate into the CLA Electric’s battery tech, which means you can in theory add 124 miles of charge in just 10 minutes at a fast enough charger. From 10-80% should only take 22 minutes, while charging from empty to full at an 11kW home box will take nine hours.

Every CLA Electric is subject to the luxury car tax from years two to six as they cost well over £40,000, while being an EV means you’re subject to the lowest band of road tax, and company car drivers will also be in the lowest band for Benefit in Kind payments.

The CLA Electric is too new to have been tested by Euro NCAP, but given its predecessor’s five-star score and the stellar performance of the larger EQE and EQS electric saloons, you can expect the small saloon to offer excellent crash protection.

Mercedes has fitted the new model with a comprehensive suite of crash protection systems as well as a super-strong body shell and clever new airbags inside to stop the front occupants from hitting one another in a collision.

You get emergency braking assist, lane-keeping cruise control, driver attention monitoring and an emergency steering system in case of a potential crash, too.

Mercedes came a stellar second place out of 31 manufacturers entered into the 2025 Driver Power survey for owner satisfaction, which should give you confidence in your CLA Electric ownership. The car is too new for any model-specific reliability woes to have reared their heads, but we wouldn’t be too concerned about that considering the older EQS model has only had a few minor recalls.

Mercedes offers a typical three-year, 60,000-mile warranty on its products, though you can extend it on a one- or two-year basis, or pay-as-you-go. The battery is covered for up to eight years or 100,000 miles should there be a fault.