Mercedes-AMG has announced that the new hot version of the CLA saloon and estate cars is on sale in the UK, with a perky 3.0secs 0-62mph time and 168mph top speed. 

Range has taken a hit from the 484 miles of the standard version of the car, but no one can be too upset with a 406-mile range from the 94kWh battery when the car looks set to offer this much fun. 

The AMG engineers from Mercedes’ sporting department have given the CLA a thorough going over to make it feel speedy, though we’ll have to have a drive before we give you a definitive verdict on whether they’ve succeeded or not. 

Vicky managed to get a good look at the new car when it was revealed a month or two back at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and she liked what she saw. 

The latest car from AMG comes in two body styles – saloon and shooting brake – and two trims, the speedy sounding Touring Edition and posher Premium Plus. 

The Touring Edition CLA 45 starts from £66,750 and comes with a super swanky sound system that even vibrates your seat for maximum effect, fancier sporty suspension, active aero bodywork, heated sports seats, 20in alloy wheels and Mercedes will even throw in 400V charging for free (the least it could do really). 

There’s 11kW AC charging as standard and 800V DC charging at 330kW that’ll get you from 10–80 percent charge in 22 minutes on a suitably fast charger. Mercedes has been selling EVs in recent months that only charge on 800V chargers and you have to pay extra to charge on lesser powered 400V units. Tsk tsk. 

Meanwhile, the Premium Plus version starts from £78,300 and adds fancier exterior trim, AMG’s Dynamic Plus package that has a drift mode, the ginormous MBUX Superscreen that comes with an 14.0in passenger display and a Burmester surround sound system. 

Going for the estate version of the car is one of the cheaper optional extras – it’ll only cost you £1,000 to upgrade from saloon to shooting brake.