Mercedes GLA SUV - MPG, running costs & CO2

GLA buyers choose between a range of petrol and diesel engines, with fuel consumption spanning from 34mpg to over 50mpg; reasonable figures for a small SUV, if nothing groundbreaking.

Two high-performance AMG versions are tempting, but cost significantly more to buy or lease and run. Those looking to save fuel or reduce their company-car tax bills should look at the GLA 250 e plug-in hybrid. Thanks to a battery and electric motor, it can manage more than 30 miles before the petrol engine is required, a figure that rose to 48 miles in 2023 when a bigger battery was added as part of a facelift. For drivers who want a fully electric small Mercedes SUV, the EQA is heavily based on the GLA, and returns a range of around 200 miles.

Mercedes GLA MPG & CO2

The entry-level GLA 200 uses a 1.3-litre turbo petrol engine that's designed for efficiency but has to work fairly hard to lug around an SUV, so can only manage up to 42mpg. A GLA 250 with a larger 2.0-litre petrol, more power and fuel-efficiency of 37.2mpg was previously available but is no longer offered.

Switch to diesel, and the GLA 200 d with front-wheel drive can return up to 52mpg. Impressively, this figure only drops by 2mpg for the GLA 220 d 4MATIC four-wheel-drive model, because the system is clever enough to only drive all four wheels when extra traction is needed.

If you're a company-car driver, there's also the GLA 250 e plug-in hybrid to consider, which has far lower official CO2 emissions, so you’ll pay far less Benefit-in-Kind tax on it as a result. Early versions had a 10.6kWh battery pack, which allowed the car to drive for up to 39 miles on its electric motor alone. This resulted in official efficiency figures of up to 201.8mpg and from 31g/km of CO2. However, an electric range below 40 miles meant it just missed out on the lower BiK band available to PHEV models. During a 2023 facelift, however, the battery was increased in size to 16kWh, thus increasing range to 48 miles and dropping it from the 12% company car tax band to the 8% band, saving fleet car drivers a whole heap in tax bills.

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Fitted with 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engines and four-wheel drive, the GLA 35 and 45 S performance versions will be the most costly to drive. Fuel economy of up to 32.5mpg for the 35 doesn't appear too ruinous but is likely to be hard to match in reality. This drops to less than 30mpg for more powerful 45 S, while the correspondingly high CO2 emissions put both hot GLAs firmly in the top BiK band for business drivers.

Every standard petrol and diesel version of the GLA will cost the standard annual VED (road tax) rate from the second year onwards. The GLA 250 e plug-in hybrid qualifies for the discounted rate thanks to its petrol/electric powertrain. Despite being the smallest SUV offered by Mercedes, most models cost more than £40,000, and as such are liable for the additional VED surcharge from the second year onwards for five years.

Insurance groups

Insurance groups for the latest GLA span from 25-27 for the entry-level petrol and 26-32 out of 50 for diesel versions, putting them in the same ballpark as rival SUVs. Meanwhile, the GLA 250 e PHEV is in groups 36-37. The AMG models are a different story, with insurance groups of around 40 making them amongst the most expensive small SUVs to cover.

Warranty

Every Mercedes model has a three-year, unlimited mileage warranty that's identical to BMW's and slightly more generous than the 60,000-mile policy from Audi and Volkswagen. There's also up to 30 years of European breakdown cover, so long as you maintain the car's service schedule with Mercedes.

Servicing

Mercedes servicing isn't the cheapest but customers have the option of paying for maintenance in monthly instalments.