{"id":276266,"date":"2026-01-09T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/276266\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T17:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:30:15","slug":"mercedes-benz-cla-crowned-europes-car-of-the-year-2026-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/276266\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes-Benz CLA crowned Europe\u2019s Car of the Year 2026 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Mercedes-Benz<\/a> CLA is Europe\u2019s car of the year 2026.<\/p>\n

Offered as an all-electric<\/a> version or with a mild-hybrid petrol engine, the CLA<\/a> was lauded for its handling prowess and the exceptional range of its EV version, with up to 792km claimed under official WLTP testing.<\/p>\n

Votes were cast by 59 jury members from 23 countries, each assigning 25 points, with a maximum of 10 points available for any one car and at least five finalists required to receive a score.<\/p>\n

Mercedes-Benz secured a commanding lead from the start, and finished on 320 points, ahead of the Skoda Elroq<\/a> on 220, Kia EV4<\/a> on 208, Citro\u00ebn\u2019s C5 Aircross<\/a> on 207 and the Fiat Grande Panda<\/a> on 200. The Dacia Bigster<\/a> scored 170, while the Renault 4<\/a> secured 150 points.<\/p>\n

The criteria for judging comprise a wide mix of innovation, price, driving pleasure and the usual array of practicality, energy economy, plus a healthy dose of gut instinct. Alongside local tests, the models are tested at organised jury events during the year, where they are put through their paces across motorways, gravel tracks, city streets, potholed back roads, race circuits and even runways.<\/p>\n

The chief engineer for Mercedes-Benz compact cars says people opt for the CLA over the C-Class because of its styling, but it\u2019s on the road that this Mercedes really shines.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The new Mercedes CLA \u2013 range anxiety? What\u2019s that?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The range is exceptional, and while many cars promise lengthy range, our own test drives have shown the CLA largely lives up to its claims. During our latest test drive in the car, we found it still had 109km left when the battery pack was down to 15 per cent, and we were running at an energy consumption of 22.3kWh\/100km.<\/p>\n

This leggy range sits alongside taut handling and wonderfully punchy acceleration, to make it a properly fun car to drive.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0My verdict \u2013 and votes \u2013 on the seven finalists for Europe\u2019s Car of the YearOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Inside, it\u2019s all a bit too bling, but the tech stands up to scrutiny, and it offers AI-supported voice activation. Using both ChatGPT and Google\u2019s Gemini, the voice assistant can help pass the journey by guiding you through World Cup winners over the past 20 years, or whatever conversational cul-de-sac you wish to go down with your car.<\/p>\n

Fast, agile and full of range, the biggest hurdle to overcome with the EV version is price. It starts at \u20ac53,425 for the CLA 200, with a 165kW battery pack and range of 540km, rising to \u20ac63,525 for the larger 272kW battery pack, which delivers that headline range of close to 800km.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Mercedes-Benz CLA is Europe\u2019s car of the year 2026. Offered as an all-electric version or with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,11911,18,8888,67438,19,17,55418,44700,55417],"class_list":{"0":"post-276266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-citroen","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-electric-vehicles","12":"tag-fiat","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-kia","16":"tag-mercedes-benz","17":"tag-skoda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115866332185647076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}