Doing a full-throttle acceleration run within the CLA 250+ saloon was an uncommon expertise for an EV. With its 268bhp, the 250+ is about averagely highly effective for the category. In any case, it’s not meant as a efficiency mannequin and it doesn’t have a launch management perform. In truth, it in some way feels barely slower than it truly is. It reaches 60mph a couple of tenths behind the Volkswagen ID 7. Shortly after that, there’s a slight hesitation because it shifts to its second gear – an operation that’s much less on the spot than it’s within the Porsche Taycan. With second gear engaged, it subjectively appears to get a second wind. In actuality, the info exhibits that it loses some accelerative power in contrast with first gear however maintains its acceleration higher than rivals. It reaches 110mph barely prior to the ID 7.
Look intently on the information, and you’ll discover that as much as 70mph our check automobile was truly barely quicker with battery cost under 10% than with it over 90%. This was as a result of getting a greater getaway, however it does present clearly that so far as UK highway speeds are involved, it doesn’t lose any efficiency at a low state of cost in any way, which is spectacular.
Simply as spectacular is the CLA’s basic drivability. There aren’t any paddles to manage the regenerative braking; as an alternative you push and pull the drive selector stalk. This provides you the selection of a freewheeling mode, a one-pedal mode, a couple of regen strengths in between and an adaptive mode. Most testers most popular the freewheeling setting, as a result of together with the very progressive brake pedal it makes the CLA deeply stress-free and intuitive to drive. Some testers discovered the one-pedal mode a bit of too fierce.
Whereas with reference to the drive selector, we do have an uncommon criticism. There is no such thing as a Park mode. As an alternative, the button on the finish of the stalk turns the automobile on and off. When you instinctively attempt to put it in Park (for example, when pulling over to have a look at your telephone), this may kill a number of the infotainment capabilities, and cycle all of the ADAS options that legally must default to on, which is irritating and pointless. You possibly can, after all, put it in Impartial and interact the handbrake, however that’s unintuitive and fiddly.
Efficiency testing additionally uncovered one of many CLA’s most disappointing attributes. Within the dry, its stopping distances are unremarkable if unusually variable. Nevertheless, it wanted 64.3m to cease from 70mph within the moist. When you think about that the majority vehicles, no matter weight, want round 55m (Kia EV3: 50.5m; Volvo XC60 T8: 56.2m), that is unacceptable for a corporation that prides itself on security. The Volkswagen ID 7 GTX recorded the same stopping distance (62.8m), so it’s not completely uncommon – but when Mercedes has fitted tyres that compromise moist braking for effectivity to this diploma, we’d argue it was the fallacious selection.
The one different CLA powertrain by-product we have examined is the 350 4Matic. Twin-motor derivatives of EVs like this have typically come over as unusually irrational propositions these final fives years or so, in obliging individuals to pay extra for heavier vehicles with much less electrical vary, which solely actually pay you again with what can seem to be a reasonably superflous efficiency degree. The CLA 350 4Matic, nonetheless, doesn’t undergo in the identical approach.
Mercedes claims that the extra motor on the entrance axle, and its related ballast (as little as 33kg, relying on elective specification), solely prices between 15- and 20 miles of vary on the WLTP cycle. Our check automobile indicated a real-world, mixed-road 375 miles of vary on a full cost. That’d drop a bit in faster motorway use – however you would nonetheless anticipate 300 miles even there, which is commendable sufficient.
The automobile doesn’t really feel quick sufficient to be a typical range-topping Mercedes efficiency by-product (we’d anticipate an AMG model to fill that hole), however it actually addresses the marginally disinterested-feeling efficiency degree of the common 250+ model. It’s brisk however not extreme. The work of the front-mounted motor additionally helps to cowl for the interruption in energy supply you may sense within the lesser model when it’s shifting gears.
