What happens when spending $70,000 to signal virtue with your fancy EV goes wrong? FIRE! 

Mercedes-Benz USA has announced a recall of 11,895 electric vehicles due to potentially faulty cells in the automobiles’ high-voltage battery packs that could lead to a fire, like what happened in front of a MBZ dealer in Malaysia in 2024 - though that one was in the middle of charging, while this recall says they can 'spontaneously catch fire' either while parked or while driving. 

The move comes after the NHTSA issued a safety recall notice posted on X on Feb. 12 announcing that it affected 1,708 Mercedes-Benz EQB 350 4Matic battery-powered SUVs model years 2022-2024. On top of that, 3,674 Mercedes-Benz EQB 250+ hybrid compact SUVs model years 2023-2024 and 6,513 2022-2024 EQB 300 4Matic vehicles were recalled. 

According to the agency, the vehicles could spontaneously catch fire either while parked or while driving due to an internal short circuit in the automobile’s high-voltage battery power supply. The issue stems from variations in the battery manufacturing process, the notice stated.

“Certain battery cells in the high-voltage battery, from an early production period, are considered to be less robust against different stress factors potentially occurring during the life of the vehicle,” Mercedes-Benz said.

“If a thermal incident were to occur during driving, the driver would be made aware of the issue by a high-voltage battery warning malfunction message in the instrument cluster. Should the thermal incident occur while the vehicle is parked, the driver would not receive a warning.”

In early 2024, an EQB caught fire while charging outside a MBZ dealership in Jahor Bahru. 

As the Epoch Times notes further, the lithium-ion batteries were manufactured by China-based Farasis Energy.

Mercedes-Benz said that after being made aware of vehicles catching fire it issued a software update to remedy the problem. However, in November 2025, two vehicles located in Europe combusted after receiving the software update, triggering an in-depth analysis of the efficacy of the software remedy in markets outside of China.

In December 2025 and January 2026, Mercedes-Benz began working with the battery supplier to tear down and test battery packs and cells. It also conducted an on-site inspection of production methods at Farasis Energy’s manufacturing facilities in Ganzhou in southeastern China.

“MBAG concluded that the effectiveness of the current software update to sufficiently reduce the risk of thermal incidents cannot be fully confirmed for all affected vehicles,” the NHTSA recall notice said.

To date, Mercedes-Benz has received reports of two vehicle fires in the United States that were attributable to faulty battery cells. The company said it would replace battery packs in the recalled vehicles at licensed Mercedes-Benz dealerships at no cost to owners.

Owners of recalled vehicles are advised to only charge their vehicles to 80 percent until they can get their battery packs replaced.

“Out of an abundance of caution, customers are additionally advised to park their vehicles outside,” the recall notice said.

MBAG said a change in production procedures eliminates the issue with faulty cells for vehicles produced after July 31, 2024. Owners will be notified of the recall campaign beginning on Feb. 27. The NHTSA recall number is 26V073.