Mercedes-Benz EQB Battery Recall: What California Owners Need to Know

If you own or lease a Mercedes-Benz EQB, you may have received a letter telling you to park your car outside, away from your house, and to stop charging it past 80 percent. That is not a small ask. It means the garage you park in is considered a fire risk, the range you paid for is capped, and — for many EQB owners — you are sitting in limbo waiting for a replacement battery that has not arrived.

Here is what the recall actually says, and what your options are under California law, including the question most EQB owners are really asking: whether you can do anything about this when you have never even had the car in for a repair.

What is the Mercedes-Benz EQB recall?

Mercedes-Benz USA is recalling 11,895 EQB electric SUVs because the high-voltage battery may fail internally and cause a fire while the vehicle is parked or being driven. The recall is NHTSA campaign 26V073, reported on June 2, 2026. The final remedy is a full replacement of the high-voltage battery, free of charge, at an authorized dealer.

Until that replacement happens, Mercedes-Benz has given owners two interim instructions:

• Park the vehicle outside, away from structures.
• Charge the battery to no more than 80 percent of its capacity.

Interim notification letters went out on March 13, 2026, with follow-up letters promised once the replacement battery is actually available.

Which Mercedes-Benz EQB models are affected?

According to NHTSA, the recall covers the following vehicles:

• 2023–2024 Mercedes-Benz EQB 250+
• 2022–2024 Mercedes-Benz EQB 300 4MATIC
• 2022–2024 Mercedes-Benz EQB 350 4MATIC

Not every EQB is included. Check your VIN through Mercedes-Benz or at NHTSA.gov to confirm whether your specific vehicle is affected.

The detail most owners miss: this is the third attempt

This is the part that matters legally, and it is buried in the recall paperwork. Recall 26V073 replaces two earlier recalls — 25V050 and 25V894. Both were attempts to fix this same battery defect. Both failed. And NHTSA is explicit that EQBs already repaired under those earlier campaigns still need the new remedy completed.

In plain terms: Mercedes-Benz has now tried to fix this defect twice, and is on its third attempt — and this time the fix is to replace the entire battery pack. That history is the difference between "my car has a recall" and "my car has a defect the manufacturer has repeatedly failed to repair." The second one is what California's Lemon Law is built for.

Does a recall automatically make my EQB a lemon?

No — and be cautious with anyone who tells you otherwise. A recall is the manufacturer acknowledging a defect and offering a free repair. That is the system working as intended.

California's Lemon Law (the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act) applies when something more has happened: a substantial, warranty-covered defect that has not been fixed after a reasonable number of repair attempts, or a vehicle that has been out of service for 30 or more cumulative days. What makes the EQB situation unusual is that the recall history itself supplies much of that. A fire-risk defect that two prior remedies failed to cure, with a third remedy many owners are still waiting on, is not an ordinary recall.

"But I have never taken it in for repairs" — can I still have a claim?

This is the question we hear most often, and the honest answer is: possibly yes.

Most people assume a lemon law claim requires a stack of repair orders. That is the typical path, but it is not the only one. With a safety recall like this one, many of the key facts have already been established by the manufacturer's own filings:

• Mercedes-Benz has admitted the defect.
• Mercedes-Benz has told you the vehicle may catch fire.
• Mercedes-Benz has told you where you may park it.
• Mercedes-Benz has told you how much you may charge it.
• Mercedes-Benz has already failed twice to fix it.
• Mercedes-Benz may still be unable to give you a date for the replacement battery.

A vehicle you have been instructed not to park near your home, and not to fully charge, is a vehicle whose use, value, and safety have been substantially affected. That is the statutory language. You do not necessarily need five service visits to demonstrate it when the manufacturer has put it in writing.

Whether it adds up to a claim depends on your specific vehicle, warranty, and timeline. But "I have no repair orders" is not, by itself, the end of the conversation — and many EQB owners are wrongly assuming that it is.

What about the 30-day rule?

California also looks at whether a vehicle has been out of service for 30 or more cumulative days for warranty repairs. Those days do not have to be consecutive — they add up across visits. If your EQB has been sitting at a dealership waiting on a backordered high-voltage battery, track every day it has been there. Owners routinely underestimate this number because they count visits instead of days.

What can you recover?

If your EQB qualifies under the Lemon Law, the possible outcomes are:

• A buyback — a refund of what you have paid (down payment, monthly payments, taxes, registration, and finance charges), minus a mileage offset for the miles driven before the defect first appeared.
• A replacement vehicle — a comparable EQB or equivalent.
• A cash-and-keep settlement — compensation while you keep the vehicle.

In a successful claim, Mercedes-Benz pays your attorney's fees. That is built into the statute, so pursuing a case costs you nothing out of pocket.

Is there a deadline? Yes — and Mercedes-Benz is a special case

This matters, and most EQB owners do not know it. Mercedes-Benz opted into California's AB 1755 program. For manufacturers that opted in, a lemon law claim generally must be filed within one year of the express warranty expiring, and no later than six years from the date the vehicle was originally delivered.

That is a materially tighter clock than the four-year rule that applies to manufacturers who did not opt in. For a 2022 EQB, the six-year outer limit is already on the horizon. If your EQB is out of its basic warranty or approaching it, do not sit on this while waiting for a battery that may be months away.

What to do right now

Whether or not you ever speak to a lawyer, do these things:

• Check your VIN against the recall at NHTSA.gov or with Mercedes-Benz.
• Keep every recall letter, email, app notification, and dealer message.
• Ask the dealer in writing whether the replacement battery is available, and when. Get the answer by email, not over the phone.
• Log every day your vehicle sits at the dealership.
• Write down the practical impact — the trips you did not take, the garage you cannot use, the extra charging stops caused by the 80 percent cap.
• Do not sign a release, settlement, or goodwill offer from Mercedes-Benz without understanding what rights you may be giving up.

Documentation is what turns "this has been a nightmare" into a provable claim.