According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are actually several different recalls going on, but they’re all very similar. First, 43,881 Volkswagen ID.4 vehicles produced from September 2, 2022 to April 10, 2025 have been recalled. “In rare circumstances,” NHTSA says, “the high-voltage battery module may experience thermal expansion, possibly resulting in a vehicle fire.”
Former Volkswagen executives convicted of fraud in dieselgate scandal
The problem arises from shifted electrodes in car batteries, which can cause a short circuit, resulting in a fire. To make matters worse, there are several similar but different issues that can cause battery fires here, with some ID.4 cars being more at risk than others.
mashable light speed
For owners of affected vehicles, Volkswagen will “conduct a battery health check inspection and install updated SDD software on vehicles under this campaign, and potentially replace the affected HV battery cell modules free of charge.”
An additional 670 VW ID.4 vehicles, model years 2023 and 2024, were recalled in January due to misaligned electrodes in the batteries, which can again cause vehicle fire. Also, 311 vehicles were recalled over a similar issue in December last year.
This is not just a theoretical problem; In fact, many vehicles caught fire because of this. For the 1,299 Volkswagen ID.4 EVs manufactured between November 3, 2022, and September 22, 2024, Volkswagen recommends that owners park the cars outside instead of in garages, and charge them only on AC slow chargers.
European owners of ID.4 vehicles will be glad to know that this problem only affects American-made ID.4s whose batteries were manufactured by SK Battery America at their American plant in Georgia. Volkswagen ID.4 cars built in Europe do not exhibit the same problem.
<a href