Doing a full-throttle acceleration run in the CLA 250+ saloon was an unusual experience for an EV. With its 268bhp, the 250+ is about averagely powerful for the class. After all, it’s not meant as a performance model and it doesn’t have a launch control function. In fact, it somehow feels slightly slower than it really is. It reaches 60mph a few tenths behind the Volkswagen ID 7. Shortly after that, there’s a slight hesitation as it shifts to its second gear – an operation that is less instant than it is in the Porsche Taycan. With second gear engaged, it subjectively seems to get a second wind. In reality, the data shows that it loses some accelerative force compared with first gear but maintains its acceleration better than rivals. It reaches 110mph slightly sooner than the ID 7.
Look closely at the data, and you will notice that up to 70mph our test car was actually slightly faster with battery charge below 10% than with it over 90%. This was due to getting a better getaway, but it does show clearly that as far as UK road speeds are concerned, it doesn’t lose any performance at a low state of charge whatsoever, which is impressive.
Just as impressive is the CLA’s general drivability. There are no paddles to control the regenerative braking; instead you push and pull the drive selector stalk. This gives you the choice of a freewheeling mode, a one-pedal mode, a few regen strengths in between and an adaptive mode. Most testers preferred the freewheeling setting, because in combination with the very progressive brake pedal it makes the CLA deeply relaxing and intuitive to drive. Some testers found the one-pedal mode a little too fierce.
While on the subject of the drive selector, we do have an unusual complaint. There is no Park mode. Instead, the button at the end of the stalk turns the car on and off. If you instinctively try to put it in Park (for instance, when pulling over to look at your phone), this will kill some of the infotainment functions, and cycle all the ADAS features that legally need to default to on, which is irritating and unnecessary. You can, of course, put it in Neutral and engage the handbrake, but that’s unintuitive and fiddly.
Performance testing also uncovered one of the CLA’s most disappointing attributes. In the dry, its stopping distances are unremarkable if unusually variable. However, it needed 64.3m to stop from 70mph in the wet. When you consider that most cars, regardless of weight, need around 55m (Kia EV3: 50.5m; Volvo XC60 T8: 56.2m), this is unacceptable for a company that prides itself on safety. The Volkswagen ID 7 GTX recorded a similar stopping distance (62.8m), so it’s not entirely unusual - but if Mercedes has fitted tyres that compromise wet braking for efficiency to this degree, we would argue it was the wrong choice.
The only other CLA powertrain derivative we've tested is the 350 4Matic. Twin-motor derivatives of EVs like this have often come over as unusually irrational propositions these last fives years or so, in obliging people to pay more for heavier cars with less electric range, which only really pay you back with what can seem like a pretty superflous performance level. The CLA 350 4Matic, however, doesn’t suffer in the same way.
Mercedes claims that the additional motor on the front axle, and its associated ballast (as little as 33kg, depending on optional specification), only costs between 15- and 20 miles of range on the WLTP cycle. Our test car indicated a real-world, mixed-road 375 miles of range on a full charge. That’d drop a bit in quicker motorway use - but you could still expect 300 miles even there, which is commendable enough.
The car doesn’t feel fast enough to be a typical range-topping Mercedes performance derivative (we’d expect an AMG version to fill that gap), but it certainly addresses the slightly disinterested-feeling performance level of the regular 250+ version. It’s brisk but not excessive. The work of the front-mounted motor also helps to cover for the interruption in power delivery you can sense in the lesser version when it’s shifting gears.
