Mercedes-Benz electric CLA and GLC demand pushes European wait times to about six months

Six-month European waits and 2027 order books

Mercedes-Benz says European demand for its new electric CLA and GLC has pushed delivery lead times to around six months, with order books for the new electric range extending into 2027. Reporting by Handelsblatt, carried by Notebookcheck, states that anyone ordering a popular variant today could be waiting until April 2027, and that the electric GLC, CLA, GLB and GLA are effectively sold out in Europe for the rest of the year. Sales board member Mathias Geisen told the outlet at the company's 140-year festival in Stuttgart that the order intake for the new 800-volt models is exceeding internal expectations. ¹

Greek outlet Sofokleousin.gr carried the same six-month wait estimate and production-boost reporting on 23 October 2026, noting that buyers ordering a car with customised equipment should expect a wait of roughly six months. The two publications agree on the headline figures and the company's response of lifting battery output, providing independent corroboration of the demand-led bottleneck. ¹²

Sales data behind the order surge

Notebookcheck, again citing Handelsblatt and the JESMB association, reports that Mercedes-Benz sold 78,100 fully electric vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, up 24 per cent on the second quarter and 52 per cent year-on-year. The company's electric share of passenger-car sales is said to have risen from 9.6 to 16.8 per cent, while GLC deliveries more than tripled against the second quarter. These are the reporting outlets' figures and should be read as such. ¹

The electric CLA has accumulated more than 71,000 registrations in Europe since its market launch in September 2025, according to both Notebookcheck and Sofokleousin, equating to around 5400 per month. Sofokleousin additionally reports almost 7400 new European GLC sales in September 2026 alone, with both models among Germany's ten most-registered electric cars that month. ¹²

This extends a demand signal Mercedes-Benz itself disclosed earlier. In its 2025 full-year sales release of 12 January 2026, the company stated that customer orders for the new electric CLA and GLC were significantly above expectations, with the CLA order bank filled rapidly after its Car of the Year 2026 award from the European jury, and the GLC — which premiered at the IAA in Munich — already booked well into the second half of 2026. Full-year 2025 Mercedes-Benz Cars BEV deliveries were 168,800 units. ⁴

Production running at maximum capacity

The battery plant at Kamenz has been operating six days a week in three shifts since June, according to Notebookcheck's report citing Handelsblatt. The assembly plants in Bremen, Rastatt, Sindelfingen and Hungary are responding flexibly to demand, but components such as electric motors and batteries remain the bottleneck. The report also notes that the GLC's production ramp-up in Bremen was initially slowed by missing components — a documented constraint on output rather than a defect or safety issue. ¹

An earlier report by 32cars in March 2026 recorded wait times exceeding six months for the CLA and GLC electrics in Europe at that time, with an order placed in March potentially delivered no earlier than September, and noted production capacity was struggling to match request volume. The persistence of the constraint across two dated reports supports the picture of sustained demand rather than a single-month spike. ³

What the models offer, and what they cost overseas

Per 32cars, the CLA EQ sedan starts at around €48,050 in its market and offers up to 792 km of range on a charge, while the GLC EQ crossover starts at approximately €71,900 with up to 713 km; both sit on 800-volt architecture with fast charging. The outlet attributes the models' reception to a revised strategy after the mixed reception of the earlier EQC, EQE and EQS, making the new electrics more technologically advanced and visually closer to combustion counterparts. These are European prices and figures, not Australian ones. ³

Separately, CarExpert reports Australian details for the electric GLC400, due locally from October 2026: pricing from $112,200 before on-road costs, a 360kW/800Nm dual-motor powertrain, a 94.4kWh nickel manganese cobalt battery, a claimed 4.3-second 0-100km/h time and 630 km of WLTP range for Australian-spec cars, plus a $110,000 plus on-roads Launch Edition. Mercedes-Benz Australia's lineup timing is its own rollout and is not linked to the European six-month wait; no Australian delivery-lead-time estimate appears in this evidence. ⁵

Context for the wider electric rollout

The demand surge lands mid-way through what Mercedes-Benz has called its biggest product and tech launch program. Its January 2026 release lists the market introduction of the electric GLC and CLA Shooting Brake, the premiere of the first series model on the AMG.EA electric architecture, and the new electric C-Class and GLA among 2026 highlights, all running the new MB.OS operating system. Notebookcheck additionally reports, per media accounts, that an electric E-Class is expected to follow at IAA 2027 and an electric A-Class in 2028 — forecasts attributed to those reports rather than confirmed by the company in this evidence. ⁴¹

The present European demand picture is built on the MMA-based CLA and GLC and does not automatically transfer to other models, generations or markets. What is documented is the constraint: component supply for motors and batteries, addressed through the Kamenz six-day, three-shift pattern and flexible plant allocation, while order books remain filled into 2027. ¹