2023 Mercedes-Benz EQE Powertrain & Transmission Problems

On April 15, 2026 at approximately 1:30 PM PT, I entered my 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV 500 4MATIC (approximately 20,000 miles) in my garage. The vehicle was not plugged in or charging prior to entry. I opened the car, sat in the driver's seat, and authenticated via the fingerprint scanner. The seat began adjusting to my stored profile position. While the seat was adjusting, I tapped the center console to open Apple CarPlay. The seat stopped moving midway through its adjustment, and what appeared to be every warning light on the instrument cluster illuminated simultaneously. I observed dozens of yellow and red warning icons, including a towing/recovery indicator. A number of warning messages also appeared on the screen. I manually adjusted the seat using the door-side controls. I attempted to shift into reverse to back out of the garage, but the vehicle would not engage. I then tried shifting into drive and the vehicle similarly would not engage. The drivetrain was completely unresponsive. I exited the vehicle, locked it, and re-entered to attempt a restart. All warning and system lights returned immediately and the vehicle again would not shift into any gear. I then connected the vehicle to my home charger. The charge port indicator on the vehicle flashed red, indicating it would not accept a charge. I disconnected the charger and attempted to start the vehicle a third time with the same result. I left the vehicle and took another car. The vehicle sat for approximately 45 minutes. At approximately 2:20 PM PT, another household member started the vehicle. It started normally with no warning lights and was able to drive without issue. The vehicle has been driven twice since this incident. On the following day (April 16, 2026), the Active Brake Assist system displayed a warning message indicating it is not functioning. This system was working normally prior to the April 15 incident.

Vehicle shut down while driving on highway, repeated drive system malfunction, turtle mode. The vehicle has experienced a recurring, unresolved drivetrain malfunction — specifically, a drive system malfunction and battery malfunction causing the vehicle to enter severely reduced-power mode ("turtle mode") — that has persisted through a minimum of three (3) separate repair attempts across two authorized Mercedes-Benz dealerships, totaling more than sixteen (16) calendar days out of service within approximately 47 days of the first failure. Most critically, on March 14, 2026, while driving on a public highway in Ontario, Canada, this defect caused the vehicle to shut down completely while in motion, forcing me to pull over on the highway shoulder. The vehicle would not restart for approximately one hour. This constitutes a serious and dangerous safety hazard.

At 0820 AM on Monday, 23 SEP 24 while traveling South on interstate 95/495 in rush hour traffic the vehicle lost complete power and 3-4 messages appeared in the display. I recall one saying the rear differential is inoperable. I turned on the emergency flashers and was fortunate to allow the car to coast to the highway’s left shoulder without causing an accident. I don’t remember the other warnings as I was preoccupied trying to get the car safely off the highway. I was able to restart the vehicle after allowing it to sit for a minute or two. I have an appointment to have it inspected on Thursday at Mercedes of Annapolis, MD. This is the second time the vehicle has lost power while traveling on the beltway. A recall was eventually issued a few weeks after the first incident. I convinced my wife to purchase this vehicle to replace her 20 year old car thinking it would provide safe, reliable transportation. To the contrary the car has had to be towed twice, has lost power on the highway and was in the shop almost a month for a noise complaint. I was told the noise issue was due to 3 bad tires, likely due to potholes, and charged $1741 to replace them. I am totally convinced the issue was not related to potholes but had no recourse other than to pay the $1741. My wife feels totally unsafe driving the car, particularly when I am out of town for work.

Driving almost 60 mph, car shuddered and went to 20 mph then 10 mph in seconds. Drove on the shoulder, only 650 miles since I leased the car. Second time has happened in four weeks.

SAFTE CONCERNS: 1. Vehicle has sever severe pulsing/shaking/jerking behavior in motion. So far I have encountered this problem when the vehicle was under 20 mph; 2. Vehicle lightly pulsing/vibrating when braking and does not stop smoothly; 3. Stepping on the gas pedal for 100% acceleration, the vehicle only went up to 30~40% power. BACKGROUND: I purchased this vehicle (with 25miles shown) on 4/21 evening around 9 pm PDT. Saturday 4/22 evening, the first time I took the car out for a drive, I experienced the concern 1 and 2 as stated above then I took it back to the dealership on 4/23 morning. I have recorded videos when vehicle was shaking. I will follow up with video attachments in email. The dealership diagnosed the car and did verify the strange behavior, but said all problems were fixed by the real axel steering software update from 4/24 to 4/25. Please find attached the service report. I then drove the car back with 91 miles shown on the vehicle 4/25 evening. However, 4/25 night, when the vehicle was reaching around 110 mile total mileage, I encountered the same issues again, along with a new one as described in concern 3 above. Through out the whole process, the vehicle was never over 40 mph, so no one got hurt or no accidents happened while the vehicle lost control. However, the issue was random and happened in my drive way, at traffic lights and as vehicle is turning on the roads, these strange behavior could not only risk passengers in the car but also put surrounding vehicles and traffic into risks. The vehicle only throw two error messages ONCE on 4/23 morning: 1) rare steering malfunction 2)auto brake system malfunction.