My consumer battery only lasted a few years and I am appalled by the nearly $200 replacement cost. I am going to attempt a 50Ah LiP04 Lithium replacement. I will keep a battery tender rated for LiP04 batteries when in the garage. While the alternator may not charge the Lithium battery completely it should keep plenty of poer to run the consumer electronics. The Lithium battery will have a BCM for thermal and electrical protection. These lithium batteries can be purchased now for right around $100. Has anybody else tried this?

 

I bought a 100Ah LiPO4 battery but haven't decided where to use it yet. Need to check the the car has a high enough charging voltage as I don't want to connect it to a special charger every day.

 

No way I would do this. Lithium batts have a different charging profile so you would need a new BCM for that. Given that the BCM can be a trouble spot on the R230, the last thing you want to do is throw it a curve ball by using a non-spec battery.

Get over the cost - this is an R230 and batteries are wear items.

 

Certainly agree for nearly everyone. However, I like to experiment and am very electrically/electronically proficient.

While the batteries might be a wear item, they don't need to be a cost item. I bought a new rear (consumer) AGM battery from AutoZone in likely 2022. Due to letting it often drain, it was in bad shape by late 2024. I removed it and took it back to AutoZone hoping for some warranty. They looked up my phone number and name, said it was a full warranty and brought me a brand new one. No testing needed, No receipt needed. No cost.

 

Additional NHTSA document attached.

 

This applies to 2022-2023 MB electric vehicles, not to anything in this section.
Perhaps you meant to post somewhere else.

 

I replaced the two marine batteries in my electric boat with lithium batteries this summer. I certainly appreciate their lighter weight. The normal 13 Volts also made the boat a bit faster. However, I learned a downside....
When the original marine batteries drained, the boat would simply go slower and slower, but would move even if the batteries were down to 10V or so.
However, when the Lithium batteries drain to a certain point (around 12V) the battery just shuts off to protect itself.
Considering how these cars always drain the consumer battery, with a Lithium battery I think we would often find it "dead" instead of just weak.

 

STOP. There is simply no need for any other battery then an original Mercedes battery from the dealer. They are made under licence by Varta, but not the same as buying off the shelf. I promise you, buy the genuine Mercedes battery and you will no longer get 'convenience functions temporarily unviable etc'

 

Batteries are maintenance items just like fluids, filters, wipers, etc., and $200 is not much more than 2 fill-ups of premium petrol. My genuine OE MB Varta battery died after 3.5 years. I replaced it with an Autozone battery that's still healthy after 36 months. There are aftermarket lithium batteries, such as the Antigravity brand, that have internal BMS's and are advertised as plug-n-play replacements for AGMs, and available in a limited number of sizes, but are spendy at $1K+. I wouldn't put a $100 lithium battery in any vehicle.

 

For people who live near a MB dealer and the dealer is willing to sell a new battery at a good price, this is reasonable advice. However for many in the US, the dealer is hours away and may be marking up the battery is ridiculous prices. While I'm sure that the MB/Varta battery is top quality, I'm also confident that many US made batteries are also very good or equal. Since the "consumer" battery never has to start the car, it is a very non-demanding battery. These cars seem to have/develop significant drain just sitting which then kills the battery. It doesn't matter what brand it is; many of these cars will drain the battery within a month. My car has about 150mA of parasitic drain, which comes to 75 AH after 3 weeks which is about the capacity of an AGM battery in this size. If you drive your car at least weekly, the battery will stay healthy. If I drove every day, I bet a small lawn mower battery would work just fine as the consumer battery.

 

There's been some inconsistency in recent years with OE Genuine MB Batteries sold in the US.

Some are imported Varta-made batteries, while others are relabeled Interstate batteries.

(Nothing wrong with the latter in terms of battery quality...just not worth the price premium for a MB sticker.)

If I knew for certain that I was buying an imported Varta battery, I'd go OE Genuine MB, so something to consider for the future.

In the meantime, I've been running Duralast AGM batteries in most of my vehicles for years now without issue.

 

Varta is a brand of the Clarios company which also sells its batteries under the names of DieHard, Duralast, ACDelco, Optima and others.
These cars need at least a trickle charger on the consumer battery when sitting for even a few weeks. When I bought my SL600 from the MB dealer a few years ago with brand new MB batteries, the batteries did not last even a year because I often forgot to plug in a charger when the car sat for more than a few weeks. Maybe my BCM is defective, but after the consumer battery drains, the starter battery connects and also drains. I replaced my consumer battery with a Duralast, accidentally drained it again one winter and got a free no hassle replacement from AutoZone.

 

If you do not have a proper scan tool and buy a battery from a non dealer source, how do you get the battery coded to the car? My understanding is that the car needs to know it has a new battery to adjust the way it is charged, and I assume the dealer would do that as part of their typically exorbitant fee for a battery and installation.

 

It is a 12 Volt AGM type car battery. Batteries Plus, a store chain with I dunno how many stores, sells a Duracell brand AGM battery that is perfect fit, perfect size, perfect specs for these R230s and I've put one in each of the (3) R230's I've owned, with great success. No problems. It even has the black and coppertop look like you know a Duracell by. The cost is about $230, plus sales tax, total around $255.00 I bought one of them for a W140 S-Class and that car killed the battery in about a year but that was because it was parked when my friends left town for six months, the battery drained to zero and was left that way for months, This will kill any AGM battery. Batteries Plus honored the warranty and replaced that battery for free. Just a few months ago, I put one of them in the trunk of my 2008 S-Class S550, which uses the SAME two batteries as the R230's!! I wondered, do those cars also have a BCM issue now and then? I have never heard of those having the BCM problems that occasionally trouble the R230s. The trunk battery in my S-Class was at least seven years old. Then a month ago, the starter battery in the same S-Class, quit, it was from APRIL 2013!! For that replacement, I got a new starter battery from O'Reilly's, they are just about the only place to get a starter battery for these cars ( I looked EVERYWHERE...) unless you get one from the MBZ dealer. It's a Super Start, lead acid battery, and also costs $230! A new starter battery from Mercedes, was about $110.00 MORE. Guys on the W221 forum here said they've been using that Super Start battery for several years and no problem, also the MBZ dealer near me is run by dishonest liars and cheats, so even if the batteries were the same price, I'd still have gone to O'Reillys.

 

This update on the ’22–’23 EQB high-voltage battery replacement is helpful for owners tracking safety actions. It’s smart to confirm service eligibility, timelines, and any related documentation tied to your vehicle. You can also reference official filings and notices through Gwinnett Court Records to stay informed. Keeping records aligned ensures clarity if questions come up during warranty or compliance reviews.

 

You posted in the wrong section of this forum