AutoUtility currently tracks 25 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Electrical System issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 8 complaints (32% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 cites a fire. The 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class belongs to the 5th Generation (W213) platform.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 25 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Electrical System (8 reports • 32% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Engine & Cooling (6), Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (6)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 0 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
25
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
0
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 32% of complaints

Electrical System

8 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 3 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
🔥 1 fire report
#2 Problem Area 24% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

6 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
🔥 1 fire report
#3 Problem Area 24% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

6 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 3 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 16% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

4 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 12% of complaints

Fuel & Propulsion System

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 2 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11755689
Filed: 08/08/2026

"Engine misfires, lower engine power, and a lit check engine/Malfunction Indicator Lamp. Mercedes-Benz issued an Emission Service Campaign (No. [PHONE REDACTED], internal code 21P1590208) to replace out-of-spec ignition coils on 657 vehicles from model year 2021, including the E-Class. My VIN was..."

Incident Date: 08/04/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN
Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA ODI ID: #11736678
Filed: 05/08/2026

"Vehicle: 2021 Mercedes-Benz E350 Sedan (W213) VIN: [XXX] While operating the vehicle, the diagnostic system displayed the fault code P240200 related to the Evaporative Emission Control System (EVAP). The warning message indicated a “positive short circuit” in the fuel vapor leak diagnosis pump..."

Incident Date: 05/02/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11708688
Filed: 01/04/2026

"With the car only have about 15,000 miles the transmission has failed . I have seen there have been recalls of other models with similar complaints of transmission failure ."

Incident Date: 12/25/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11707258
Filed: 12/27/2025

"Engine keeps having a misfire that Mercedes put a TSB out for and once the misfire happen I cause the vehicle to go in a limp mode which causes the vehicle to loose power happened to me in the freeway. The car had 54K miles and Mercedes refused to repair the issue as the engine part failure isn’t..."

Incident Date: 12/02/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11673376
Filed: 07/14/2025

"My 2021 Mercedes-Benz E350 (VIN [XXX] ) developed a serious engine issue involving cylinder misfire and check engine light. The dealer diagnosed it as a leaking exhaust valve on cylinder 4, related to TSB LI01.30-P-072328, which documents valve seat wear in M260 engines. This is a known defect..."

Incident Date: 07/01/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2026)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 57 5 6 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 89 6 5 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 166 3 20 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 66 2 6 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 54 4 20 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 20 0 14 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Current Page 25 0 18 Current
2022 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 21 2 8 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 24 0 5 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 25 3 0 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 2 0 2 View 2025 Problems →
2026 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 0 0 0 View 2026 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 16 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 3 0 0 0 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 3 0 0 0 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 3 0 0 0 0
Back Over Prevention / Camera NHTSA category: BACK OVER PREVENTION 2 0 0 0 0
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 2 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 2 0 1 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
Forward Collision Avoidance NHTSA category: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
Fuel System NHTSA category: FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
SEAT BELTS,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 0 0 0 0
Wheels & Hubs NHTSA category: WHEELS 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (25). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.