- Battery-electric CLA 250+, CLA 350 arrive first
- Non-PHEV CLA hybrid coming in a 12 months
- EVs have 800-volt structure, 320-kw max charging
Mercedes-Benz will kick off the alternative of all its international small vehicles this 12 months—and once they do, all of the fashions coming to the U.S. will sport some form of electrification. However some can be extra electrical than others.
Battery-electric CLAs would be the first of the brand new technology of compact vehicles to reach late in 2025. They’ll be adopted by a CLA hybrid a couple of 12 months after that, with replacements for the GLA-Class hatchback and GLB-Class but to return.
Not half of the present plan: plug-in hybrids.
As an alternative, the MMA componentry can be BEV-first, stated Christoph Starzynski, Vice President Product Technique and Product Steering Mercedes-Benz Vehicles, whereas a non-plug-in hybrid will comply with.
It’s a method that has been within the works because the MMA program, Starzynski instructed Inexperienced Automobile Studies. The mix of EV and ICE fashions was the best way MMA “was at all times deliberate as a platform or structure,” he stated throughout a current roundtable in Sindelfingen, throughout a press preview of the brand new vary.
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
CLA EV: An 85.5-kwh core, with a motor or two
Whereas the revamped CLA-Class grows bigger and extra technologically advanced, it’s drawn nearer to some new nameplates within the EV area. Some getting old merchandise apart, the vehicles the CLA now competes with most instantly embody mass-market machines just like the Toyota Prius and the Hyundai Ioniq 6.
With rivals like these, the 2026 CLA needed to have an environment friendly battery at its coronary heart. For the previous few years, Mercedes has been maturing its EV know-how with a collection of ideas, beginning with the current EQXX idea.
Each a single-motor and a dual-motor CLA can be provided. The CLA 250+ rear-drive, single-motor sedan rides atop an 85.5-kwh (usable) lithium-ion battery pack. It’s rated at 268 hp, and Mercedes predicts a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds.
With a second 107-hp motor in entrance, the CLA 350 4Matic will provide all-wheel drive and a faster acceleration time of 4.8 seconds. The entrance motor can be decoupled when not in use, for higher effectivity, an effort that’s in live performance with a warmth pump and a low 0.21 coefficient of drag.
The 800-volt structure of the CLA permits a cost price of as much as 320 kw, which may return 186 miles of vary in 10 minutes on a DC quick charger. No estimates have been printed for house Stage 2 charging through its 11-kw onboard inverter. Based mostly on WLTP ranges, it’s seemingly essentially the most CLA 250+ will carry not less than a 300-mile EPA rated vary—maybe a lot greater.
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
The CLA will profit from a reworked regenerative braking system that avoids the pitfalls of that on the EQE and EQS vehicles. As an alternative of transferring the pedal in response to regenerative braking, it can learn the stress utilized to the pedal and mix regen and friction braking for a extra easily mixed pressure.
The CLA EV can have 4 regen modes—together with a one-pedal drive mode. It’s “not one thing I am a fan of,” Starzynski stated, however prospects wished it.
With its 800-volt design, the CLA presents a query for charging within the U.S., the place 400-volt Tesla stations are essentially the most generally accessible. Mercedes vehicles will have the ability to entry the Ionna charging community that it’s a accomplice in, however Starzynski didn’t affirm how Mercedes would deal with the compatibility of these 400-volt charging stations.
“If we see a market demand for 400 volts in the USA when the automobile hits the market,” he stated, “then we may even discover a answer.”
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: Fuel-electric hybrid, minus the plug
Starzynski stated the BEV-first design has resulted in a greater ICE car than might need been developed. That ICE hybrid arrives a couple of 12 months after the battery-electric CLA sedan. In it, a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder can be mated to a 1.3-kwh battery pack, and to a 27-hp entrance motor built-in with an 8-speed dual-clutch automated. No efficiency numbers or fuel-economy figures have been mooted, however Starzynski confirmed the CLA hybrid would have the ability to depend on its hybrid battery to permit the automobile to cruise on battery energy alone at speeds of as much as 60 mph.
The CLA hybrid can have electrical drive vary—simply “not one thing you may certify,” Starzynski stated—however there aren’t any plans to provide you with a “third means” answer for the automobile.
As a BEV or HEV, however not a PHEV, the CLA will stay one of many solely, if not the one, Mercedes mannequin to take action. A plug-in hybrid on this value and dimension class wouldn’t be a good selection, he prompt. In bigger autos that require a extra highly effective drivetrain, plug-ins are “bridging state of affairs,” he defined. Given the potential price and vary trade-off, prospects haven’t been clamoring for a CLA-sized PHEV—however for autos such because the GLC 350e plug-in hybrid now on sale within the U.S., the bridge to full-BEV driving is “undoubtedly a method we need to maintain.”
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class styling, area, and tech
The 2026 CLA—each electrical and hybrid fashions—get plenty of stars of their visible language on this technology. With a extra pronounced wedge in its stance, the CLA EV wears 142 tiny three-pointed stars on its face, an enormous lighted one entrance and middle, and extra within the headlights and taillights.
The wide-screen know-how inside counts as one other star, by any measure. A trio of digital shows marry beneath a pane of glass to create the “Superscreen,” a companion to the extra expansive Hyperscreen in at this time’s EQE and EQS vehicles. The overwhelming presence of the shows within the compact CLA may play higher on the GLB SUV alternative but to return—it’s a high-cowl, SUV-like sprint form, interval—however the brand new interface performs nicely irrespective of who’s within the viewers. It’s an immersive expertise dubbed MB.OS, and it permits drivers to reorder apps on the house display screen as they see match, to swipe via screens like on a pill, and to go full-screen with Apple CarPlay if they like that setting.
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
MB.OS components in Google map knowledge via a Mercedes-coded appear and feel that even integrates lighting and voice high quality to assuage the driving force. If the voice-command system acknowledges a tersely worded request, it may well match the vitality by dialing the automobile’s lighting from a cool blue to a vivid pink, for instance.
All CLAs will sport a bundle of security options together with adaptive cruise management. A Stage 2 driver help setup will come as an possibility, aided by an in-car community of eight cameras, 5 radar sensors, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, in addition to over-the-air updates.
Costs can be confirmed nearer to the on-sale date, later this 12 months. For comparability, the present CLA 250 prices $45,550. Count on extra of all the things, particularly value—particularly within the present EV-unfriendly political local weather.
Mercedes-Benz paid for journey in order that we may convey you this primary look of the 2026 CLA-Class.
