Mercedes-Benz has identified a crucial defect in vehicles produced between 2023 and 2025 at its Bremen, Sindelfingen, and Tuscaloosa plants in Germany and the United States.
Reports from Denmark and the U.S. in late 2023 revealed an issue with the battery management system where Denmark reported the warning before customer delivery, and the U.S. reported reduced drive power along with the warning.
Initially, the battery management system software was suspected, but further investigation showed that the battery control module’s memory could become overloaded from excessive diagnostic requests by other control units.
This data overflow might lead to a reset of the module, causing diminished power output or total loss of propulsion, thereby heightening the crash risk. However, the vehicle can be restarted after a complete stop.
Before notifying the NHTSA, Mercedes-Benz was aware of 17 related incidents in the U.S., but thankfully, no injuries were reported.
Sales of the EQE and EQS have been slow due to high prices and the less advanced 400-volt architecture compared to the cheaper 800-volt systems in Hyundai and Kia models.
The software issue was fixed in production on May 13, 2024, with dealers updating affected vehicles by June 3, and owners receiving recall notifications by July 23.
