Good Luck Charging the Mercedes-Benz CLA EV

 Wouldn’t it be ironic if future-proofing something also meant it’s unusable today? Such is the problem for anyone who gets the upcoming Mercedes-Benz CLA EV. Mercedes has confirmed that its new, entry-level electric vehicle is designed for 800-volt DC fast chargers, but as a result, it’s not compatible at all with common 400-volt chargers—you’re either charging ultra fast or ultra not at all.

The new CLA EV is equipped with Tesla’s North American Charging System (NACS) port. However, as InsideEVs reports, a Norwegian EV enthusiast discovered that the CLA doesn’t support charging that is less than 500 volts, which consequently means the car won’t be able to use any of the NACS stations throughout the Tesla Supercharger network after all. This isn’t just a European problem because no Superchargers in the U.S. currently support 800-volt charging either. 

Who does? Coincidentally, Electrify America‘s entire charger network supports 1,000-volt charging. Oh, but CLA owners are going to need an adapter to use them. Although the CLA EV has both a NACS and J1772 charging port, EA stations utilize CHAdeMO for up to 50 kW of charging speed and CCS for speeds up to 350 kW. 

It remains to be seen whether Mercedes will be distributing CCS1 adapters, but as somewhat of a workaround, the in-car navigation system will direct drivers to the few and far between compatible stations. Home AC charging is also an option, of course, but that method takes hours. Gee, thanks, Mercedes.

Representatives from the automaker said this charging inconvenience cannot be remedied with a software update because the issue is a hardware one. And that was the plan all along.

“The CLA can’t use 400-volt DC chargers,” a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson from Europe confirmed with InsideEVs. “We consciously rely exclusively on pure 800-volt charging technology, where we do not have to make any compromises in charging performance.” 

From the U.S. side, the response was similar: “While it is not possible to charge at 400-volt DC charging stations, the Mercedes-Benz navigation with Electric Intelligence leads to the compatible high-performance chargers, where charging with up to 320 kW is possible with the new CLA.”

Sounds annoying, but it’s really a fault of the current charging infrastructure, which is on an endless loop of playing catch-up. CLA EV owners aren’t alone in this predicament, as other EV models, both luxury and otherwise, are set up with 800-volt architectures and higher. These include the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV9, Lucid Air, Lucid Gravity, and Porsche Taycan. 

The thing is, though, all of these other EVs can use lower-powered 400-volt chargers. Topping off the battery at one will take longer, but at least it still works. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are currently 61,261 Level 2 public charging stations nationwide. That figure drops to 12,234 for Level 3 DC fast chargers, of which 800-volt stations are a mere fraction. The number of EV charging stations is growing and the infrastructure is improving, but for CLA EV owners, probably not fast enough.

On the brighter side, something tells us the lease deals on this thing are going to be absurd.

The post Good Luck Charging the Mercedes-Benz CLA EV appeared first on The Drive.