Twinned with the EQE SUV on the German automaker's EVA2 platform, the Mercedes-Benz EQE Sedan has been hit with a safety recall. More specifically, a handful of vehicles equipped with comfort suspension feature iffy headlamp control unit coding that – depending on the driving scenario – may adjust the headlamps too high or too low.
Too high creates glare, thus blinding oncoming traffic. Too low – especially in dynamic driving situations – makes it difficult for the driver to detect obstacles on the road. The root cause for the incorrect coding is a deviation in the development process, or so claims the Stuttgart-based manufacturer in documents filed with the US auto safety watchdog.
A report published on the NHTSA's website reveals that Mercedes became aware of said issue during an internal quality review in August 2023. Although the potentially affected vehicles were identified rather easily, the German automaker dragged its feet with this recall through December 2023. Why, though?
According to the attached report, Mercedes first analyzed the potential effects of the iffy software and whether incorrectly adjusted headlights go against motor vehicle safety regulations. Admittedly, it was 100 percent obvious that all potentially affected EQE Sedan vehicles had to be recalled from the outset.
Merc says that 10 examples of the breed require a software update, namely EQE 350 vehicles produced for the 2023 model year between October 6, 2022 and October 20, 2022. As mentioned earlier, said four-door sedans were optioned with comfort suspension. EQE 350s with the standard setup are not affected.
Photo: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes further claims that the remedy software rolled out into EQE production on November 9, 2022. Dealers have already been instructed to reflash the headlamp control unit, and owners will be informed via first-class mail no later than February 13, 2024.
Revealed with much pomp at the IAA 2021 in Munich to a rather lukewarm reception, the EQE is also related to the EQS line. The most obvious difference between the E and S is that the EQE Sedan features a four-door setup as opposed to five doors for the EQS Sedan. The all-electric sibling of the combustion-engined Mercedes E-Class can be had with either rear-wheel drive or dual-motor AWD.
At the moment of writing, the lineup kicks off with the 350+. The + indicates maximum driving range from the 90.6-kWh battery pack, with said range being 305 miles (491 kilometers). The EQE 350 4MATIC is good for 260 miles (418 kilometers) due to its dual-motor arrangement. The punchier EQE 500 4MATIC is EPA-rated 260 miles as well.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Mercedes-AMG EQE belts out 617 ponies and 701 pound-feet (950 Nm), whereas the Race Start driving mode increases maximum output to 677 horses and 738 pound-feet (1,000 Nm). Zero to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) takes only 3.2 seconds. Given these numbers, it shouldn't come as a surprise that driving range is pretty bad (225 miles/362 kilometers).
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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