Mercedes-Benz is recalling EQB electric SUVs in the United States after recall documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warn of a high-voltage battery defect that can increase the risk of a fire, including when vehicles are parked and powered off. The recall, filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, follows an earlier campaign that attempted to address the same underlying flaw with software fixes and charging restrictions. That initial remedy reached only about 74% of affected owners, and the persistence of the defect now forces a more aggressive response: full battery replacement.
A Defect That Burns While You Sleep
The core problem described in the recall documents is the potential for an internal electrical short circuit inside the high-voltage battery pack. Unlike many automotive recalls that involve risks during driving, the recall documents warn the defect could lead to thermal events and a fire even when the vehicle is off and unattended. For EQB owners who park in attached garages or shared underground structures, a vehicle fire can pose risks beyond the vehicle itself, including potential damage to nearby property and other vehicles.
NHTSA cataloged the original defect under Campaign 25V050000, which confirmed that the EQB high-voltage battery may fail internally. The agency’s staged remedy history shows that Mercedes initially responded with interim guidance, a charging limit, and a battery management system software update. Those measures were designed to reduce the likelihood of a short circuit but did not eliminate the root cause. The later move to a battery-replacement remedy indicates Mercedes is now addressing the issue with a hardware fix rather than relying only on software and charging guidance.
Second Recall Escalates the Fix
The follow-up recall, documented in Part 573 Safety Recall Report 26V073, was filed on February 13, 2026. It calls for authorized Mercedes dealers to replace the defective battery packs at no cost to owners. The report noted that the completion rate for the original recall stood at approximately 74% at the time of filing, meaning roughly one in four affected vehicles had not yet received even the earlier, less aggressive fix. That gap leaves a significant number of EQBs on the road or in garages with batteries that have received no mitigation at all.
A 74% completion rate is not unusual for automotive recalls in general, but the stakes here are higher than a typical component failure. Vehicle fires involving high-voltage batteries can be difficult to extinguish, and safety agencies often advise caution when dealing with battery-related fire risks. For the quarter of owners who never brought their vehicles in for the software update and charging limit, the risk profile has remained unchanged since the defect was first identified. The transition from a software-based remedy to a battery replacement underscores that the updated campaign is intended to address the underlying defect rather than only mitigate risk through charging limits and software changes.
European Regulators Flag the Same Risk
The concern is not limited to the U.S. market. European authorities have also published safety alerts through the EU Safety Gate system describing fire risk concerns tied to high-voltage batteries on certain Mercedes models, including EQA and EQB listings. The inclusion of the EQA in the European alert suggests the battery defect may affect a broader range of Mercedes electric vehicles than the U.S. recall currently covers, though NHTSA’s published campaigns to date have focused specifically on the EQB.
The parallel notices on both sides of the Atlantic suggest the concern is tied to the high-voltage battery component rather than a market-specific issue. However, the public-facing notices do not, by themselves, establish the precise root cause or where in the supply chain the defect originated. Neither NHTSA nor the EU Safety Gate notices have published direct statements or testing results from the battery supplier, which limits public understanding of what specifically went wrong at the cell level and whether corrective action has been taken at the factory.
What This Means for EQB Owners
Owners of affected EQB models should expect dealer notifications directing them to schedule a battery replacement. The remedy program described in the Part 573 report specifies that an authorized Mercedes dealer will perform the work. Given that the earlier software-based fix left the underlying defect in place, owners who already completed that initial recall should not assume their vehicles are safe from the thermal risk. The battery replacement represents the definitive fix, and it applies regardless of whether the prior software update was installed.
For anyone who parks an EQB in an enclosed space, the practical advice is straightforward: check whether your vehicle falls under either recall campaign and schedule the battery replacement as soon as dealers begin performing the work. Until the new battery is installed, some owners may choose to park outdoors and away from structures as a precaution. The charging limit imposed under the earlier recall may offer some degree of risk reduction in the interim, but it was never intended as a permanent solution, and regulators have now moved past it.
Recurring Recalls and Supply Chain Questions
The pattern here deserves scrutiny. A single defect required two separate recall campaigns, the first offering a workaround and the second demanding a full component swap. That sequence raises questions about whether Mercedes and its battery supplier identified the severity of the cell-level flaw early enough to skip the interim step entirely. Automakers often deploy software-based mitigations as a bridge while engineering a hardware fix, but the gap between the two campaigns left affected vehicles in a gray zone where owners may have believed the problem was resolved.
Most coverage of EV battery recalls treats each campaign as an isolated event. The more telling story is the escalation pattern. When a software update and charging restriction fail to contain a thermal risk, and regulators in both the U.S. and Europe independently issue formal safety alerts, the problem points to quality control gaps in the battery supply chain rather than a design oversight that a patch can address. As electric vehicle production scales globally, the ability of automakers to verify cell-level quality before batteries reach finished vehicles will determine whether recalls like this remain rare exceptions or become a recurring cost of the transition to electric drivetrains. For now, EQB owners are the ones absorbing the inconvenience and risk while that question gets answered.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
