2025 MERCEDES-BENZ Gle 450E 4MATIC

When accelerating in hybrid mode, the vehicle loses power and forcefully reduces speed. A "Performance extremely limited" message appears on the driver console. Sometimes it goes into "turtle" mode, limiting performance until the car it is turned off. Sometimes the "check engine" light comes on, with or without the "turtle" light. This is a safety issue when you are trying to accelerate onto a highway and the car reduces speed, thus increasing the risk of being rear-ended in heavy traffic. There are times when the car loses power and there is no emergency lane to move into. The car has been taken to the dealership's service department multiple times and the issue has been confirmed. They tried updating the software but it did not resolve the issue. This occurred for the first time about 4 months after purchasing the new vehicle. It had 3500 miles on it. There are many reports of this happening to others. [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The vehicle loses power while driving and flashes "Performance Extremely Limited." We have had this happen in intersections and while getting on the highway almost causing an accident on more than one occasion. When this occurs the vehicle decelerates quickly, will not use the batter and basic functions like the air conditioning stop working.

GLE 450e Plug In-Hybrid. Car went into ‘Turtle Mode’ on Saturday March 8th for no known reason. Turtle Light and Check Engine warning lights came on and there was a warning message “Significant Reduction in Power”. My understanding this is a vehicle initiated precaution when something triggers the vehicle to go into reduced power mode. This all happened after the car had been driven on the highway for about 2.5 hours. It was running in gas engine mode since the battery power had been off for 1.5hrs. It was also about 30F in VT that day. The turtle mode came on as soon as we exited the highway. The vehicle was drivable, but there was almost no acceleration from 0-20mph. Once the car was above 25 mph and 2k RPM’s it could run 40-60mph but it had no brisk acceleration. When we stopped at lights, the poor acceleration continued all the way to our destination (so it ran 1.5 hours in Turtle Mode). But this is certainly a flow of traffic issue as the car pulls away from stops at a very slow and deliberate speed forcing other drivers to alter their driving. When we parked the car at our destination both the Turtle warning light and check engine light were still illuminated. Several hours later for our 4-hour return trip back from VT, when we started the car the check engine light was on but the Turtle warning indicator was off. The car appeared to run normally in ICE mode but we didn’t push it hard. Towards the end of our trip after we stopped for gas, the check engine light stayed off.