Volkswagen recalls 40,000 ID.4 electric cars over fire risk

Volkswagen has recalled more than 40,000 of its ID.4 electric SUVs for one of the worst reasons imaginable: risk of battery fire.

There are actually several separate recalls going on here, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but they're all very similar. First, 43,881 Volkswagen ID.4 vehicles, produced from Sept. 2, 2022 to Apr. 10, 2025, have been recalled. "In rare circumstances," the NHTSA says, "the high-voltage battery modules may experience a thermal propagation, possibly resulting in a vehicle fire."

The issue stems from shifted electrodes in the cars' batteries, which can cause a short circuit, resulting in a fire. To make matters worse, there are several similar but separate issues that could cause battery fire here, with some ID.4 cars being more at risk than others.

For owners with affected vehicles, Volkswagen will "conduct a battery health check inspection and install updated SDD software on vehicles within this campaign, and will replace potentially affected HV battery cell modules," for free.

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. Plus, 311 vehicles were recalled in December last year over a similar issue.

This isn't just a theoretical problem; several vehicles actually caught fire because of it. For 1,299 Volkswagen ID.4 EVs manufactured between Nov. 3, 2022, and Sept. 22, 2024, Volkswagen recommends that owners park the cars outside instead of in a garage, and charge them only on AC slow chargers.

European owners of ID.4 vehicles will be happy to know that this issue only affects American-made ID.4s, whose batteries were produced by SK Battery America, in its U.S. plant in Georgia. The Volkswagen ID.4 cars that were manufactured in Europe do not exhibit the same issue.