- 2026 CLA splits into electric, hybrid models
- EV: 85.5-kwh battery, 2-speed transmission, single or dual motors
- Hybrid: turbo-4, electric motor, 8-speed dual-clutch
- Prices—and cars—come later in 2025
We’ve seen it in spy photos, and sat in the front right seat for a sneak preview of its performance. Now it’s time to take the first look at one of the most popular small luxury cars on the road.
The Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class has been reinvented for the 2026 model year. It’s grown bigger, has gained more technology, and now it’s driven by batteries, in part or in all. It’s a rival for a few vehicles in the under-$50,000 space, but one that it calls to mind most clearly is a non-luxury-branded sedan: the Hyundai Ioniq 6.
It’s still a compact sedan, with an aero-smooth body and room for four or five. But this time around, the CLA-Class has become a sort of thought leader for the toughest question facing luxury automakers today: How do you keep prices in relative check, while complying with all kinds of global regulations and ill-conceived tariffs—and while delivering a hefty payload of style and technology?
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: Skin in the game
From its body panels to its tires, the 2026 CLA bristles with an evolution of its coupe-like style. It’s built on a new component set dubbed MMA that will form the basis for a foursome of compact vehicles in the coming years. There’s a CLA-Class, a replacement for the GLB-Class SUV, a GLA hatchback successor, and a shooting-brake CLA that won’t come to the U.S.
The CLA’s identity, if anything, has grown sharper—while it’s also grown up and out. With more wedge in its stance and a taller profile, it’s a muscled-up version of the compact Benz that’s now in its third generation. At the front, the electric CLA wears a front panel studded with 142 LED-lit stars, with the three-pointed-star badge lit at the center of the constellation. Stars even make up its LED running lights. All pulse to greet the driver or to say goodbye. Hybrid CLAs get their own chrome-stamped stars instead, with a more conventional grille framed by LED light. The front end’s cutlines mask some of the car’s added height; the roofline does most of the work as it slopes toward a rear end that’s banded by a light bar and studded with its own three-pointed-star LED taillights.
In the CLA’s cabin, the cowl sits high, and wide-screen displays dominate from door to door. In the vein of the Hyperscreen in the EQE and EQS cars, the CLA’s “Superscreen” stitches together three displays under a single glass pane, and dresses it with a Mercedes-coded interface. It’s a look that promises to work better in the GLB-Class replacement, just in proportion alone, but it’s knitted in here with floating armrests with pull-style handles and a floating center console, so the interior doesn’t feel too confining. Wood, leather, and metallic trim offset the pixels, in at least one unexpectedly fabulous way—in one treatment with retro flair, white leather clouds up around white wood trim inscribed with pencil-thin lines. In all, the style is meant to appeal to current CLA and Mercedes owners, with none of the spartan overtones of some other EVs.
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: Hybrid or battery-electric, but no PHEV
Rather than cluster its performance credentials around a single powertrain, the 2026 CLA sedan pushes toward the ends of the bell curve instead. For now, the U.S. lineup will include two electric models, with a hybrid edition to come in a year or so.
The CLA 250+ with EQ Technology takes up the entry spot in the BEV lineup. With a 85.5-kwh (usable) lithium-ion battery pack forming its floor and a single motor at the rear, this edition promises 268 hp and a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds. Adding a second, 107-hp motor in front creates the CLA 350 4Matic with EQ Technology. It’s all-wheel drive, of course, and posts a Mercedes-estimated 0-60 mph time of 4.8 seconds. Both BEVs cap out at 130 mph.
As it has chased efficiency in battery-electric design to build the MMA cars, Mercedes has extracted some of the lessons from its EQXX concept. In dual-motor models, the front motor can decouple to reduce consumption at that end by up to 90%. The aerodynamic shape cuts a profile with a 0.21 coefficient of drag, while the car trims efficiency losses in the cold with a heat pump. The 2026 CLA will be the first—but certainly not the last—Mercedes to deploy a 2-speed transmission mounted in the rear, which allows the car to operate more efficiently across a wider range of speeds.
With its 800-volt architecture, the CLA will be able to charge at a rate of up to 320 kw, which promises a maximum restoration of 186 miles of range in 10 minutes. The plan for U.S. cars, at least, is to include both J1772 and NACS charge ports under a single door. Mercedes hasn’t quoted a time for recharging via a Level 2 connection through its onboard 11-kw charger. While EPA ratings haven’t been confirmed, WLTP estimates suggest the CLA’s most efficient model should have more than 300 miles of range—perhaps even 350 miles.
Complaints about the regenerative braking on Mercedes’s big EQS and EQE cars have led to a revamped system in the CLA. Now the car takes sensor data from driver braking and blends regen with friction braking for the best stopping power. In most cases, Mercedes believes the regenerative braking will do the work. The 2026 CLA-Class will have a true one-pedal drive mode, something we experienced during a CLA EV prototype ride late last year. Drivers will toggle from low to high regen through D-, D, and D+ modes, with a fourth D Auto mode that lets the car decide the amount of regen.
The CLA EVs should launch by the end of this year. In 2026, Mercedes plans to add a hybrid CLA to the mix. It pairs a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine with a smaller 1.3-kwh battery pack and a 27-hp front motor that’s integrated into its 8-speed dual-clutch automatic. No plug-in hybrid has been planned—a PHEV setup wouldn’t be efficient with price or fuel—but the CLA will be able to cruise on battery power at speeds of up to 60 mph.
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: A fresh tech outlook, with a new OS
It remains a compact vehicle, but the 2026 CLA-Class has made some gains as it gets into fighting trim. The wheelbase has grown by 2.4 inches, overall height by 1.1 inches. A brief stint in the front and back seats showed the CLA is in a better position than the two previous cars in terms of driving position and comfort. The back seat’s better, too, but some of the progress comes from the higher panoramic sunroof that floods the interior with light. The battery pack consumes that inch-plus growth spurt in EV models, and the rear seating position’s still a knees-up affair. In cargo space, the CLA EV’s trunk looks more usefully sized—and there’s a front trunk, too. A roll-aboard will fit, but it will have to be hoisted over the nose to get there.
Space hasn’t been a CLA calling card, anyway. Technology promises to be a new one, with the Superscreen hosting a new MB.OS interface that blends Google map data with Mercedes look and feel. The driver can view augmented mapping information on their digital display, while full-screen Apple CarPlay or native navigation steer toward a destination or play streaming music—all while the front passenger can view movies or other streaming content. With improved voice recognition and responsive speech, MB.OS gets “more friendly”—and more concerned with the driver’s mood, as it can shift its lighting language from green to red, for example, as it senses the driver’s speech and observes in-car data. We’re eager to experiment with this setup in intense traffic with lots of death metal music, just to push a few buttons (that it doesn’t have, thanks to big screens and touch-swipe controls).
Every 2026 CLA-Class sedan will sport automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. A Level 2 driver-assist system will add automatic lane changes and other features, some through over-the-air updates that it can deliver through its network of eight cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and five radar sensors.
That’ll all cost more, likely, than the 2025 CLA-Class, which started at $45,550 and raced to $70,000 in the AMG CLA 45 S. No U.S.-specific numbers or features have been announced, but by late 2025, it’ll all become clearer—and we’ll know if the latest CLA can outflank its rivals and post up at the top of the compact luxury-EV class.
Mercedes-Benz paid for travel so we could bring you this first look at the 2026 CLA 250+ and CLA 350 4Matic.