Mercedes has spent years and several false starts trying to build an electric car people rave about. The new CLA, reviewed here by Everything Electric CARS, is the one the presenters think finally lands, at least where it counts. It opens the second generation of Mercedes EVs, with new software, new battery hardware, and a shift back to a conventional saloon shape after the blobby EQ era. The headline is range: the video cites a 484-mile WLTP figure, which the host calls extraordinary and says only a pricier sibling beats. It also arrives wearing a 2026 European Car of the Year badge, which the video says makes it the first Mercedes to take the award in more than half a century, edging the Renault 5. The praise is real, but so is a reservation, and it lands almost entirely on whether the interior feels like the badge on the nose.
The CLA arrives at an interesting moment for the German incumbents. After early efforts like the EQ-badged cars and BMW's first i-series drew polite reviews rather than excitement, both makers are now rolling out second-generation EV platforms, and the video repeatedly measures the CLA against BMW's Neue Klasse iX3 as the two cars that finally push things forward. One strategic difference the review highlights is worth a buyer's attention. Mercedes built the CLA on a single platform meant to take battery, hybrid, or petrol power, while BMW uses a dedicated EV architecture. That flexibility can cost interior packaging, and the video wonders aloud whether a battery-only design might have freed up a lower floor and more rear space. For anyone cross-shopping the two, that is the real question under the spec sheets: does sharing a platform with a future engine compromise the electric car you actually buy.
On the road, the review is enthusiastic about efficiency. The host records just under 4 miles per kWh in roughly 10-degree weather with motorway running, projecting about 350 real-world miles against that 484-mile WLTP claim, and praises unusually strong one-pedal regen and a car that coasts freely. This is the 250 version; the video says a more powerful, all-wheel-drive variant with about 80 extra horsepower is coming, and an estate is also on the way. The gripes concentrate inside. The presenter likes that the software borrows Apple CarPlay's clear, icon-led layout and rates the AI voice assistant highly, but argues the materials and flat, screen-dominated dash do not read as luxury, singling out a blank panel where an optional passenger screen would go. Rear space, tested by a 6-foot-6 passenger, is called adequate for the car's coupe-saloon shape rather than generous. Regen strength, the host notes, is adjusted through the drive-select lever, a control he only found by asking the car's own voice assistant. On styling the review is split, counting 142 tiny stars in the illuminated grille and a full-width light bar, and finding the nose fussier than the clean profile. The window switches, oddly, get some of the warmest praise in the whole review.
Bottom line: As an EV, the CLA looks like the breakthrough Mercedes needed; as a luxury statement, the jury in this review is still out. The range, efficiency, and ride are the story, and they are strong enough that the presenters call it as big a step as BMW's iX3. The doubt is about feel, whether a cabin this screen-heavy and this sparing with soft materials earns the three-pointed star. If you buy EVs on how far and how efficiently they go, this is an easy shortlist entry. If the badge has to feel special inside, go sit in one first.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.