Mercedes says it can beat any Tesla on range with a new car nearing production

• Mercedes is headed for the release of a new EV that gets more mileage on a single charge than Tesla.

• The new sedan gets nearly 470 miles of range and also charges faster.

• Driver issues with Teslas are mounting, from "rigged" range estimates to poor service and glitches.

The mileage range of a new fully electric car from Mercedes could easily outshine that of any Tesla.

The German automaker is set this week to unveil a new CLA sedan during the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung, a major car show in Munich, according to a report in Bloomberg. Its current range on a single charge, Mercedes says, is 466 miles, beating by about 70 miles the longest proposed range of any Tesla, the electric car company run by Elon Musk.

"We're taking it to the next level," Markus Schäfer, CTO of Mercedes, told Bloomberg. "This car is extremely important for innovation reasons and to push the limits for what we can do with a series car."

Its new CLA also charges faster than Tesla's supercharger, according to Mercedes. In just 15 minutes of charging, the CLA can add 250 miles, while Tesla adds about 200 miles in the same amount of time on a supercharger. While the new Mercedes is is still in the concept phase, it is "near-production" and is expected to hit showrooms in early 2025.

Mercedes' announcement comes as Tesla is under fire for allegedly exaggerating the range of its vehicles, even creating a team inside the company tasked with avoiding driver complaints and range-related service appointments, according to an investigation by Reuters. Some Tesla drivers have noticed that the range they could actually drive on a single charge was often half of what was promoted by the car company. Reuters found that Tesla for years had been "rigging" the range-estimation software in the cars.

Tesla is now facing a lawsuit over allegations of false advertising, with buyers claiming they paid too much for the cars considering their lack of range.

Other problems with Teslas have come up in recent years. Drivers have complained of poor service, the glitching of basic features like door handles, and overall a lack of quality control. It has left the growing EV field open for major car manufacturers to build up fleets of alternative options, flooding the market with more electric vehicles than ever.

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