Mercedes recalls EQB due to possible battery problem

According to the announcement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the problem can occur in parked vehicles and while driving. Affected are “certain” units of the EQB 250, EQB 300 4MATIC and EQB 350 4MATIC. Owners of these vehicles are advised to charge the battery to a maximum of 80 per cent for the time being.There is already a remedy: as part of the recall, dealers will install a new version of the battery management system – free of charge for customers. However, according to the NHTSA, the corresponding letters with the exact announcement will probably not be sent out until 1 April 2025.“Due to variations during an early stage production period at the supplier, combined with local external influencing factors (such as occurrence of electric current ripples in the charging infrastructure or potential mechanical damage to the high-voltage battery), individual high-voltage battery might be insufficiently robust at high state of charge,” the NHTSA’s Safety Recall Report states.According to the document, the supplier is Chinese cell manufacturer Farasis Energy. Throughout 2023 and 2024, there are said to have been a total of five vehicle fires, all in China. The Chinese authorities and Farasis were also involved in the investigations. “As a result of those analysis, MBAG’s understanding was that, while no specific root cause was found, factors arising from certain EB330 production issues, combined with external conditions in the local market, could lead to the thermal events,” according to the NHTSA. EB330 refers to the battery installed in the EQB.In January 2025, Mercedes concluded that they “were likely limited tothe local conditions that seemed to only occur in China.” However, as it could not be ruled out that the combination of factors could also occur in other environments, Mercedes “decided to conduct a global safety recall campaign.” The goal is to improve the battery management software.So far, the precautionary recall has been ordered in the US. We have not yet found an entry in the German Federal Motor Transport Authority’s recall database. We will update this article as soon as we have more information on other markets.nhtsa.gov