The Drive 🤝 your inbox. Every weekday
The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive reporting on the auto industry and car culture.
Volkswagen is going to push an over-the-air-update to a huge chunk of ID 4 EVs in an effort to prevent battery fires. The company still isn’t quite sure what is causing the fires that prompted a recall of its compact electric car, but apparently they’re less likely to happen if owners cap their charge level at 80%.
“The root cause is unknown, however in certain high-voltage batteries within the affected vehicle population, certain charging profiles combined with a state of charge over 80% may trigger thermal propagation within the high-voltage battery,” VW’s recall report said.
“Thermal propagation,” of course, being lawyer-speak for “fire.”
“Until the recall remedy has been performed, owners are advised to limit vehicle charging to 80%,” the report said. “As a reminder, the vehicle owner’s manual contains important information regarding vehicle charging and setting charging settings. We encourage anyone who drives the vehicle to review the owner’s manual to become familiar with this important information.”
In other words, if you don’t know how to adjust your car’s charging cap, RTFM. But also, don’t worry, because Volkswagen’s just going to do it for you anyway. You can opt out via the app if you’d prefer to manage the state of charge yourself. After all, not everybody trusts VW when it comes to recall fixes.
The recall applies to 2023-2026 models, and because the cause has still yet to be identified, VW had to sort of wing it to determine which vehicles are likely to self-immolate:
“The recall population was determined by reviewing vehicle assembly records, high-voltage battery traceability information, supplier production records, and available vehicle charging data. Vehicles outside of this population contain cells that were produced outside the suspect range or contain cells that have sufficiently recent and complete data indicating charging usage below the defined threshold.”
If you own an ID 4, keep an eye out for a notification from VW about the forthcoming update.
Got a story tip? Let us know at tips@thedrive.com!
Add The Drive as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.
Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
