The New Mercedes CLA Will Do 466 Miles On A Single Charge

Behold, the new Mercedes-Benz CLA. Well, officially this is a concept version, shown at the 2023 Munich motor show, but what you see here, once stripped of the flashy concept car accoutrements, will be the new Mercedes CLA saloon/four-door coupe when the production model is revealed next year.

Looks-wise, it’s a bit of a departure from the existing Mercedes EQ line of electric cars, and you can expect that look, with its full-width LED light bars at each end, to appear on several other smaller electric models too – there are four compact cars planned that will use the same MMA platform (that’s Mercedes Modular Architecture, rather than Mixed Martial Arts). One of these will be a CLA Shooting Brake, and there’ll be two SUVs as well.

So, this Concept CLA Class, as the car you see here is officially called. It’s got a 235bhp motor driving the rear wheels, but in the production version you can expect various options including a rapid 536bhp, dual-motor CLA AMG. That won’t appear until 2025 though.

Battery spods among you will be intrigued by the Concept CLA’s fancy new battery tech, which promises a fairly massive 466-mile range. It uses an NMC (Lithium–Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt-Oxide) battery, which is denser than ‘traditional’ batteries, while simultaneously smaller and safer. This will make the CLA very efficient with energy consumption of 5.2 miles per kilowatt (the electric equivalent of miles per gallon). That’s pretty impressive compared to the 3m/kWh figure that most of today’s electric cars hover around.

The 800V architecture of the car (encompassing all the electric systems as well as the battery) also allows fast 250kW charging, which Mercedes says will give 248 miles of range in just 15 minutes. Entry-level CLAs will have the option of a (less expensive) lithium ion phosphate battery, known as an LFP unit.

The Concept CLA debuts a new infotainment setup too, called MB.OS, which we’ll see on a variety of models over the coming years. It has a triple-screen setup spread across the whole car, and Merc says the new operating system will use AI to take personalisation options to new levels by using your own preferences to give you bespoke screens and interfaces.

It’s all very futuristic then. You’d expect that from a concept car, but this is a way more than just a design study – this is what Mercedes cars will look like in the next few years.