Based on a recent report from Autocar, close to 20 thousand Mercedes EQC’s were recalled, due to potential errors with the steering wheel. The problem is defined as follows:
- The wiring harness for the steering control device may have been damaged during the production process and can allow moisture to ingress into the control unit.
- This may lead to the loss of electric steering support, increasing the risk of an accident. Moreover, a short circuit of the damaged wiring harness can occur, leading to an increased risk of fire.
These Mercedes EQC’s were manufactured between the 11th of December 2019 and the 18th of May 2020. This is what the officials had to say in the report:
“Mercedes-Benz AG has determined that on certain EQC vehicles (293 platform), the wiring harness of the electrical steering might have been damaged during the assembly process. “
“In this case, water might ingress into the wiring harness through a damaged isolation and advance over time into the steering control unit. As a consequence, the steering assist might fail spontaneously, also during driving. In this case, the driver would be notified by a red warning message in the instrument cluster.”
We have witnessed a lot of electric vehicles recalls in the past two years. What happens is that companies usually overpromise what their new vehicle will be capable of achieving, while the car is in the production phase. Then, they struggle to deliver those promises, or, as a side effect, leaks like this might occur.
In September of 2021, Ford recalled almost 18,000 vehicles, model Mustang Mach-E, due to windshield and sunroof issues.
Probably the most scandalous situation from this year was the massive recall of the Chevy Bolt EV, once it was determined that the battery within the car is flammable. It was a big hit to General Motors, which had to recall over 140,000 vehicles over 6 model years.
Back to the story at hand, Mercedes hasn’t specified how many of EQCs might have been affected globally, but they did say that 3,073 units sold in Germany were affected.
