Just ordered EQA 250+ AMG Line

diederik said:

Yes, they'll automatically enable/disable high beam when oncoming traffic is detected or when you're appoaching a car from behind.

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Sorry, not sure I'm asking the right question - what I'm really wanting to know is whether they can 'shape' the high beam at all? VW/Audi call them "Matrix LED Headlights" and my wife's 2015 C Class calls them "Intelligent LED Headlights", but they're essentially the same thing (although the older Mercedes system was a little more simplistic, but achieved the same result).

If you're following another car on a dark road and there's no oncoming traffic, then they maintain high beam apart from the area where the car in front of you is, and the system will 'track' the tail lights of that car. It essentially creates a dark, square 'box' of light that the other car is within such that the other car isn't dazzled, but it maintains high beam for you - and it's brilliant! If another car then comes the other way it can dip just the area of the high beam where that car is and will again 'track' that car, returning that area to high beam as soon as it can whilst still maintaining the square dark box around the car you're following. Unsure what "Adaptive High Beam" actually means and I just can't find any info about it.

I"m thinking it may be the more simple on/off high beam system rather than having the ability to shape the high beam. There doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade the headlights on the EQA, even on the top Premium Plus model, which seems something of an oversight on what is potentially a £60k+ car (but it's standard on my £40k Skoda Kodiaq). There's a good video of the newer Mercedes system working on a 2019 E Class here (from 2.40 into the video):

This is exactly how my Kodiaq's headlights work. My question is whether the EQA has this system, but suspect not.

scratch113 said:

Sorry, not sure I'm asking the right question - what I'm really wanting to know is whether they can 'shape' the high beam at all? VW/Audi call them "Matrix LED Headlights" and my wife's 2015 C Class calls them "Intelligent LED Headlights", but they're essentially the same thing (although the older Mercedes system was a little more simplistic, but achieved the same result).

If you're following another car on a dark road and there's no oncoming traffic, then they maintain high beam apart from the area where the car in front of you is, and the system will 'track' the tail lights of that car. It essentially creates a dark, square 'box' of light that the other car is within such that the other car isn't dazzled, but it maintains high beam for you - and it's brilliant! If another car then comes the other way it can dip just the area of the high beam where that car is and will again 'track' that car, returning that area to high beam as soon as it can whilst still maintaining the square dark box around the car you're following. Unsure what "Adaptive High Beam" actually means and I just can't find any info about it.

I"m thinking it may be the more simple on/off high beam system rather than having the ability to shape the high beam. There doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade the headlights on the EQA, even on the top Premium Plus model, which seems something of an oversight on what is potentially a £60k+ car (but it's standard on my £40k Skoda Kodiaq). There's a good video of the newer Mercedes system working on a 2019 E Class here (from 2.40 into the video):

This is exactly how my Kodiaq's headlights work. My question is whether the EQA has this system, but suspect not.

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I think I know what you are asking as my A200 Sedan Mercedes from 2019 has Multi Beam LED's and does exactly that High Beam is on always and the LED's adjust for Cars , Bikes and People even signs that reflect back to much.

Now I dont have my EQA300 yet as it wont be delivered until June but its my understanding as you can see from the picture the EQA the high beam has the traditional reflect mirrors inside its housing so it uses reflection technology rather than the projection technology like the Low Beam Lights if the car comes with the Adaptive Highbeam Assist (SA-608) its just an on/off high beam rather than a Multi Beam Like my A200 or even the GLA



Both the EQA and EQB dont give the options to upgrade the lights like in the EQC or even the GLA its the only option I wanted that I couldn't order on the EQA and the EQC is too big and outside what I am willing to spend on a car. But since I dont really do a lot of night driving it was only a nice to have option rather than a must have. I will miss the A200 lights it did look impressive at night especially if you driving in a really dark area and you can see the multi beams change to suit the environment

Yes, that's as I suspected as I would think that Mercedes would still describe them as "Intelligent LED" if they were the type that could shape the beam. Interestingly, the system Mercedes used in 2015 looked much like the picture you posted above of the front of the EQA though - it has two reflector housings inside each headlight, but they're both used for the high beam. Each has the ability to physically move both horizontally and vertically and they both have fairly sharp edges to the light pattern that they throw such that it can have the two outer ones on high beam and the two inner ones not, thereby creating a U-shaped dark area in the middle which it can move around to track other cars.

What's different to my Kodiaq is that on the VAG system (newer), you can see the individual LED elements and they will turn on to high beam with a sweep from the centre outwards, whereas my wife's 2015 C Class, the entire light appears to sweep up from below (provided there isn't an oncoming car). With the 2015 Merc, you can see the 4 individual elements of the headlights physically moving around as it tracks either oncoming cars or the tail lights of cars you're following, however with only 4 elements, it can only create a single U-shaped black box to put other cars within, whereas with the Matrix LED ones it can create multiple boxes, so will in effect maintain more high beam areas lit ahead of you, which certainly makes driving at night on a dark road much more pleasurable.

There's a short video about the system my wife has on her car here (and you can see that there are 2 reflector-type elements, which look much like the EQA's):

And before people start moaning about these system causing dazzle, in my wife's Mercedes, I never get flashed by oncoming cars, whereas in my Kodiaq I occasionally do because it's just a little slower to react sometimes.

That said, neither were as bad as the headlights I had on my LR Disco Sport - they were Xenon lights rather than LEDs, but they did have an auto high beam system, but just a simple on/off (which is what I think the EQA has). The problem with the LR system was that it would 'see' oncoming cars, but then lose them, even when they were driving straight towards you from a distance away. There were numerous times when I'd be driving at night and the car would be going on-off-on-off-on-off with the high beam as cars came towards me and other drivers would (quite rightly) then start flashing me back! It would also often not 'see' cars that you were coming up behind and just leave the high beam on. The only way to turn the system off was to select the headlight switch by the driver's knee from Auto to On, but that then disabled the auto headlights entirely and also meant you had to remember to turn the lights off when you turned the car off, which kind of defeats the purpose of having an auto setting at all. Absolute rubbish! (Although it wasn't the only thing on that car that was rubbish - don't get me started!!!)

An interesting thread.

I own a May 2021 build EQA250 and as far as I know it has the standard fitment headlamps. Most of my motoring is in built-up urban areas and I tend to leave the lights set on Auto. However, a few months ago we took our first night-time trip to the near country. I received one or two angry flashes from approaching motorists and wondered what the problem was. Before the penny dropped, I also noticed the lamps switching between high and low beam for seemingly inexplicable reasons. In most cases, I decided, the system was detecting reflective roadside warning signs and responding as if it were an approaching car.

Next day, I contacted my dealer and learnt that the solution to irregular high/low beam switching is to switch to the Headlamp position on the lights switch, rather than Auto. I still leave the switch set to Auto for urban driving, but when out of urban areas, I switch to the Headlamp position and select high or low beam manually, according to my judgement of appropriate high/low beam thresholds.

Hopefully, the more sophisticated system you're discussing is more reliable!

Anduain said:

So exciting! Looking forward to the "unboxing" video !

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No video (as yet!), but here's the first two pictures of my wife's new EQA 250+ arriving outside our house on the trailer. Delivered with just 9 miles on the clock and at 100% charge. Dash says 309 miles range (max), but guess we'll see what we actually get!

Also had the Pod Point installed today, so all go. And I've even managed to get a coat of GTechniq Crystal Serum Light ceramic coating applied to all of the paint. Only took me an hour as it's lovely and clean, so a quick once over with GTechniq Panel Wipe and then panel-by-panel with the Crystal Serum Light. Need to put some C5 on the alloys and G4 on the glass as well, but that can be for another day!

Anyway, here's the first couple of photos - loving the Denim Blue metallic!