VW recalls around 300 ID.4 units in the USA due to fire risk

Volkswagen has issued a warning in the USA about an increased fire risk in some units of its ID.4 electric SUV. The recall affects 311 vehicles from the 2023 and 2024 model years. The company has identified misaligned electrodes in individual battery cells as the defect.

Since the start of 2024, several parked or charging VW ID.4 vehicles in the USA have caught fire. Volkswagen has since identified a link between the incidents: the affected vehicles are equipped with faulty batteries. According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the defect arises from a “misaligned electrode in the HV battery cell,” which may lead to a fire. The battery supplier for the ID.4 in the USA is SK On.

The responsible parties have traced the faulty production to a specific period, limiting the issue to 311 vehicles from the 2023 and 2024 model years. “Customers may experience a loss of range and/or performance if the faulty electrode is indeed present,” the NHTSA states. All affected owners will be notified in writing by the end of January. Volkswagen will then replace the affected battery cell modules in full. Until then, Volkswagen advises owners to park their vehicles outdoors only, limit charging to a maximum of 80 per cent, and avoid DC fast charging.

The recall was triggered by four vehicle fires in mid-January, early July, early October, and early December 2024 (the first in Illinois, two in California, and the last in Utah). In all four cases, experts from VW and SK On traced the cause to the high-voltage battery. However, due to the varying nature of the incidents and the condition of the batteries, they were initially unable to identify the exact defect.

This was followed by another incident in mid-August in Colorado, where cell modules with shifted electrodes were detected. Subsequently, the supplier conducted a teardown analysis of the other damaged cell modules at the end of September 2025, which confirmed the shifted electrode condition, as the NHTSA reports. CT scans also supported these findings. In November 2025, SK On identified the specific modules with the shifted electrodes, enabling Volkswagen to initiate the recall.

roadandtrack.com, nhtsa.gov

This article was first published by Cora Werwitzke for electrive’s German edition.