Your Volkswagen ID.4 may be recalled.
Just now, Volkswagen confirmed that the 2021 model year ID.4 is being recalled in the United States due to a software failure.
However, this time it is not the vehicle system, but the power control module of the Volkswagen MEB platform.
According to the report, these ID.4's high-voltage battery management modules and pulse inverter modules will fail, and the chain reaction will cause the vehicle to suddenly stall.
There were reports of problems as early as 2021, but Volkswagen only decided to recall the vehicles this year.
However, Volkswagen will arrange for owners to visit dealers to install software fixes starting in March, and the cost will be borne by dealers.
Whether the ID.4 in the Chinese market will have the same recall plan has not been announced.
The module fails and the battery stops powering
The vehicle in question is the 2021 version of the ID.4, which was produced between May 26, 2020 and January 20, 2022, and VW will recall a total of 20,904 units.
The first cause of failure is that the high-voltage battery management module is too sensitive and may reset itself.
If the high-voltage battery management module is reset, the system may deactivate the inverter control module, which will stop supplying power to the battery, causing the vehicle to suddenly stall.
Although the public pointed out that such failures will only occur in rare cases, they still need to be updated and fixed for safety.
According to the report, Volkswagen will start notifying dealers and owners on March 31 this year, when dealers will install software fixes for recalled vehicles free of charge.
Except for this version of ID.4, other versions of the vehicle will not be affected.
It should be noted that this software failure is not Volkswagen's vehicle system, but only involves the battery management system of Volkswagen's MEB platform, and it is the first time that there is a related recall problem.
But this time the software glitch did not appear suddenly.
Problems have been reported early, but no risk has been detected by the public
In July 2021, Volkswagen received a problem report in Europe about a potential problem with the ID.4 high-voltage battery management module.
Volkswagen also took action, analysing and testing the vehicles and conducting risk assessments.
The final conclusion of the public risk assessment is that the vehicle is safe and there is no unreasonable risk.
Volkswagen later received some failure data, but because the data was limited and no allegations of collisions or injuries were found, Volkswagen took no action other than continuous data monitoring.
In January 2022, VW's suppliers reported that there were also problems with the pulse inverter module, so VW launched a new analytical investigation.
In October of the same year, the Volkswagen Product Safety Committee pointed out that the steering and braking functions of the ID.4 were not affected, so it was determined that this would not affect the safety of the vehicle, and the vehicle would remain fully controllable, even if there was a problem, the vehicle would be guaranteed to run normally after restarting.
But during this analysis, Volkswagen received reports of potential stall problems with the ID.4 in the United States, and in January of this year, the United States updated the reported data.
Volkswagen decided to address the issue and decided to start recalling the vehicle.
Constant software problems for the masses
As the second car in the ID series, the Volkswagen ID.4 has already had a recall this year.
In January, due to design issues, the charging cable of the ID.4 12-volt battery would constantly rub against the vehicle's steering column and cause wear.
Cable wear can cause a short circuit, which can cause a fire. That is, charging can cause a fire.
However, this recall, which only involves the single-motor rear-wheel drive version of the ID.4, brings the total number of vehicles recalled to about 1,000.
Now when it comes to Volkswagen, many people may first think that Volkswagen software is not easy to use.
It is also true that ID.3, ID.4, Golf 8... Many of Volkswagen's models have had problems such as in-vehicle infotainment screen lag, sudden blankness, and unsmooth interaction.
Volkswagen is also working hard to do this, such as CARIAD and Horizon to reach a cooperation, new CEO Blumer appointed new executives, and managed a new software development department...
But gradually, the public seems to be more and more obsessed with software.
In 2021, Volkswagen once released the high-end electric sedan "Project Trinity", as well as a new SSP platform. At that time, Volkswagen predicted that it would introduce a series of new technologies in the future, including a higher level of assisted driving systems, and expand new business models.
But later, Volkswagen postponed the release plan of the SSP platform, only developed and launched a new platform MEB+ based on the MEB platform, and the original factory construction plan was also shelved.
At the Volkswagen supervisory board meeting at the end of last year, Blumer's strategic goal was to make Volkswagen Software competitive in the market and achieve "software hegemony" regardless of losses.
Volkswagen chose to build better cars, introduce new models and technologies, expand production, or strive to improve in response to weak problems.
But perhaps, the public doesn't really have to smash software.
You tell me?
Reference Links:
[1]https://www.autoblog.com/2023/02/07/vw-id4-recall-stalling-software-update/
[2]https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLRPT-23V040-5903.PDF
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