The new electric CLA 45 just became the fastest four-door coupé ever around the Nürburgring
AMG's cheapest model is now its fastest around the world's toughest track. It did the lap as a completely stock, fully electric car
The new Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 4MATIC+ lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7:32.070 on 28 July, driven by Kevin Berger, making it the fastest four-door coupé ever recorded around the circuit. It beat the Porsche Taycan Turbo S in the process, and it did it as a fully electric car with three motors, not a drop of petrol.
A stock car, not a stripped-out record special
Mercedes completed the roughly 20 km lap with no modifications to the body, suspension, or powertrain, the same specification any customer can order. That detail matters more than the time itself, since plenty of Nürburgring records come from cars wearing rollcages and race tyres that never reach a showroom.
Three motors, one very quick coupé
Power comes from three axial-flux electric motors, a layout derived from the Mercedes-AMG GT, with two motors on the rear axle and one driving the front wheels for full all-wheel drive. Output peaks at 680 hp in launch mode, with combined torque reported at roughly 1,758 Nm, enough for 0 to 100 km/h in as little as 2.7 seconds with the standard 1-foot rollout measurement, or 3.0 seconds measured from a true standstill.
Real range to go with the lap time
An 800-volt electrical architecture allows charging from 10 to 80 percent in as little as 22 minutes at up to 330 kW, and Mercedes quotes a WLTP range up to roughly 670 km for the coupé and 639 km for the shooting brake version. None of that is typical Nürburgring-record talk, which is usually about lap times and nothing else.
A fake soundtrack for a genuinely real record
Mercedes has added an AMG Force S+ mode that simulates engine noise and gear shifts to recreate a more traditional combustion AMG feel. It is a strange addition on a car that just proved itself entirely on electric terms, without needing to borrow any theatre from the cars it replaced.
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Beating a Porsche Taycan Turbo S around the Nordschleife in AMG's cheapest model, in a fully stock car, is a genuinely serious result, and the fact that nobody needed to strip the interior or fit race rubber to do it says more about where EV performance has landed than any spec sheet could.
The simulated engine noise is the one part of this story that undercuts itself. A car confident enough to set this record on its own terms should not also need to pretend it sounds like something it is not.
