The Volkswagen ID.4 may have defective battery modules that could catch fire.
Volkswagen issued a new recall campaign for its electric ID.4 SUV, saying that the high-voltage battery modules may overheat and catch fire. The automaker tells the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the issue is rare and only impacts a small proportion (approximately 1%) of impacted cars. Nevertheless, it is recalling 43,881 units in the U.S. and 8,526 in Canada, between model years 2023 and 2025.
According to what the company told the NHTSA on January 21, the modules within the battery pack could experience “a thermal propagation”. VW initially learned about incidents as early as 2024, though a root cause was unknown in that timeframe. On December 3, 2025, after supplier SK Battery America identified with damaged cell modules with “shifted electrodes” in a teardown analysis, Volkswagen made the decision to file an earlier recall (25V-836) with the NHTSA.
This latest campaign involves a second hardware issue, wherein the supplier found another problem stemming from production that could lead to a different kind of shifted electrode condition. SK’s December 2025 finding noted this new issue did not relate to the previous field reports, but ultimately could end in the same result: a battery fire.
As of January 14, Volkswagen’s Product Safety Committee decided to move ahead with a recall, despite not having a clear root cause for incidents outside the scope of the initial 2025 shifted electrode recall. Some of the automaker’s data, it tells the NHTSA, indicates the ID.4’s “self-discharge detection” (SDD) software could have triggered a warning in at least three known incidents related to batteries overheating and catching fire.
The affected vehicles under this new recall — more than 52,000 in total — were built between September 2, 2022 (for the 2023 model year) and April 10, 2025 (for the 2025 model year).
What’s the fix?
Volkswagen is telling dealers to diagnose customer concerns and make repairs, including replacing defective battery cell modules if needed, free of charge. Technicians will also install the latest self-discharge detection software on vehicles affected by the recall.
Vehicles within the recall population sitting in dealer inventory are under stop-sale, as they cannot be sold with a known safety defect under federal law, until the defect is remedied.
Owners can find out whether their car is impacted by going to the NHTSA’s recall website (number 26V-030), or plugging their VIN into Volkswagen’s own recall page (recall number 93EA).
