Out of all the issues that could impact a new vehicle, few are more worrying than a fault with the braking system and unfortunately for 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLE 450e owners, their freshly-delivered SUV may have just such a problem.
Mercedes-Benz has announced it is recalling 2,797 examples of the 2024 GLE 450e that were manufactured between January 6, 2023, and October 27, 2023, over a brake problem. The recall initially impacted 2,770 vehicles but was expanded on December 4.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall notice states that under specified conditions like driving on electric power during wet weather conditions, the required input force on the brake pedal might be increased. That poses an obvious safety risk and increases the potential for a crash should the driver not apply the correct amount of force on the brake pedal.
The car manufacturer has been aware of a potential issue since February 2022 when it investigated field reports from outside the U.S. that alleged the brakes of certain GLE models did not respond as expected. Mercedes was initially unable to identify why the issue may be occurring but started further investigations in April of this year. Despite running tests on different weather conditions, it was unable to reproduce the issue. It was only after establishing a new team to analyze the alleged fault that it was hypothesized the ESP control unit might not provide sufficient brake support in certain situations.
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Those who own a 2024 GLE 450e will be alerted to the recall on or before January 30, 2024, and asked to take their SUV to their nearest dealership where the ESP control unit software will be updated free of charge.
