It may be the cheapest car in the automaker’s U.S. lineup at present, but the new 2026 CLA it won’t look or feel that way from what we found.

A closed track is most likely, or perhaps a stretch of road that vehicle engineers have covered dozens or even hundreds of times already, which ensures the camouflage-wrapped prototype reacts exactly as expected.

It sounds like an idea straight out of a five-year-old’s imagination: A car covered in solar panels runs entirely on energy from the sun. As far-fetched as it seems, this isn’t pure fantasy. Mercedes-Benz says it’s developing a solar paint that would allow electric vehicle owners in places like Los Angeles to power their daily driving without ever plugging in.

A new Mercedes electric car is coming to market in 2026. Newsweek is one of the first to get to experience it.