High-Voltage Battery May Overheat and Cause Fire

Affected vehicles (1)

Component / system

Defect

Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2023-2025 ID.4 vehicles. The high-voltage battery may overheat.

Risk / consequence

A high-voltage battery that overheats increases the risk of a fire.

Remedy

Dealers will update the high-voltage battery software, and replace the high-voltage battery, as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 18, 2026. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 93EA. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov on January 23, 2026.

Chronology of events

1. In 2024 and 2025, Volkswagen learned of thermal events for which the root cause was unknown, but where upon on-site investigation by Volkswagen into the vehicle and charging apparatus the area of origin was determined to be within the HV battery. Where possible, the batteries have undergone extensive analysis at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant and the supplier’s facilities.

2. June 2025

   In June 2025, the supplier conducted a CT analysis of the cell modules from three (3) thermal events and was unable to identify a root cause within the battery cell modules.

3. July 2025

   In June-July 2025, after the supplier’s inconclusive CT Results, VW and the supplier investigated other potential causes/influences within the vehicle but outside of the HV battery. This investigation found no evidence of other potential causes, so the investigation refocused on the HV battery. After regular back and forth discussions between Volkswagen and the supplier to try to identify the cause of these events, in late September 2025, the supplier performed Tear-Down Analysis of the other damaged cell modules which revealed a “shifted” electrode condition. The supplier then compared this to the previous CT Images and was able to recognize the shifted cathode in the CT images.

4. October 2025

   In October 2025, Volkswagen voluntarily brought the topic of these thermal incidents to ODI during its quarterly meeting and discussed that it was working with its supplier to finalize root cause, risk assessment, affected population, and countermeasures.

5. November 2025

   In November 2025, the supplier identified the specific modules with the shifted electrode condition, and based on that, the vehicle population was identified.

6. Nov 26, 2025

   On November 26, 2025, the shifted electrode topic was presented to the Volkswagen Product Safety Committee and a recall for vehicles built with affected HV battery cell modules was decided.

7. Dec 3, 2025

   On December 3, 2025, Volkswagen filed recall 25V836 with NHTSA.

8. Dec 9, 2025

   On December 9, 2025, the supplier provided updated results of its investigation, which found additional HV battery cell modules that were potentially produced with shifted electrodes.

9. Dec 10, 2025

   On December 10, 2025, the new information from the supplier was presented to the Volkswagen Product Safety Committee and a recall for additional vehicles built with the additional HV battery cell modules was decided.

10. Dec 15, 2025

    On December 15, 2025, Volkswagen amended recall 25V836 with NHTSA.

11. Dec 16, 2025

    On December 16, 2025 - January 13, 2026, the supplier identified a second hardware issue from production that potentially could result in a different shifted electrode condition. This issue does not appear to relate to any known field incidents. Volkswagen and supplier discussed the findings, identified potentially affected vehicles, and undertook a risk analysis for this topic.

12. Jan 14, 2026

    On January 14, 2026, the second shifted electrode topic was presented to the Volkswagen Product Safety Committee and a recall for vehicles built with affected HV battery cell modules was decided. At this point, there appear to be thermal incidents outside the ranges identified by the supplier as potentially having a defined hardware anomaly. Despite not having a clear root cause for these incidents, there is data that indicates that self-discharge detection (“SDD”) software would have triggered a warning in advance of at least three (3) known incidents.

13. Jan 14, 2026

    On January 14, 2026, despite the lack of a clear root cause for the incidents outside of the ranges being recalled for the shifted electrode issues, out of an abundance of caution, the Volkswagen Product Safety Committee decided a recall to conduct a battery health check on all vehicles that do not currently have SDD software, and to install the updated SDD software on those vehicles. Additionally, vehicles with cell modules exhibiting improper behavior will have those affected modules replaced.

Notification schedule

Dealer notification

Jan 23, 2026 - Jan 23, 2026 No Dealers

Owner notification

Mar 20, 2026 - Mar 20, 2026 Phased Recall