Mercedes must recall 8,281 electric vehicles in the U.S. due to a software issue that is leading to problems with the propulsion system. The issue mostly affects the EQS sedan, but the automaker will also have to fix the EQS SUV and EQE.
Mercedes launched its investigation into the issue in October 2022, after receiving a single field report “indicating a malfunction of the electric drivetrain.” The automaker had reason to believe that the driver of the vehicle may have lost propulsion and, therefore, looked into it to find a root cause.
Using detailed analyses of field data, Mercedes determined that under specific conditions, a fault management response logic could deactivate the electric drivetrain, which could cause the vehicle to lose power, and increase the risk of a crash.
Read: Mercedes Recalls 7,500 S-Class And EQS Models Over ESP Software Glitch
Mercedes suggests that the issue may be precipitated by contact with a specific plug connector within the electric drivetrain. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the problem, the driver will not receive any warning prior to the failure, but after the issue occurs, they will see multiple messages in the instrument cluster.
Fortunately, Mercedes isn’t aware of any injuries, accidents, or fatalities stemming from this issue. It is only aware of two field reports of this occurring in the U.S. Both occurred in October 2022.
Despite that, Mercedes will recall 5,051 EQS 450s from the 2022-2023 model years, 2,736 EQS 580s from the 2022 model year, 492 AMG EQSs from the 2022-2023 model years, one EQS 580 SUV from the 2023 model year, and one AMG EQE from the 2023 model year.
The automaker plans to start reaching out to owners of affected vehicles on August 4, and they will be asked to return their vehicle to an authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer who will update the electric drivetrain software. It claims that will ensure that the issue can no longer occur.
