[blackout]

Recently, the software updates for your Volkswagen ID.4 offered under Service Action 97FY were put on hold. This was because Volkswagen discovered that additional software improvements were necessary in order to address important vehicle concerns.

Volkswagen has decided that a defect, which relates to motor vehicle safety, exists in certain 2021 model year Volkswagen ID.4 vehicles. We would like to let you know more about this upcoming recall, and what this means for your vehicle. To help keep you informed, you will receive future communications from Volkswagen about this recall.

About this Safety Recall:
The high voltage (HV) battery management control unit may reset or, in rare events, the pulse inverter may be deactivated while driving. If the HV battery management control unit resets while driving, the vehicle's electric motor will not be supplied with power for the duration of the reset. This may lead to a loss of propulsion without warning, and may increase the risk of a crash.

Right now, this recall repair is not yet available
Currently your dealer does not have the recall remedy available to perform the recall work. Volkswagen is working to make the recall repair available as quickly as possible. By March 31st, 2023, you will receive the official recall notification letter via first class mail. This recall notification letter will provide information of the next steps you can take to obtain this software update.

In the interim, if the recall condition described above occurs in your vehicle:

1. The driver will receive an immediate warning in the instrument cluster.
2. Customers experiencing this situation are advised to contact their authorized Volkswagen dealer without delay for an appointment to have the vehicle diagnosed/repaired.

Your safety and that of your passengers is our highest priority. We apologize for any inconvenience this letter may cause and appreciate your patience as we continue to provide you with improved solutions and experiences.

Best Regards,

Rachael Zaluzec
SVP, Customer Experience & Brand Marketing
Volkswagen of America

 

[mkasemer]

Yes, and no mention of which vehicles are affected...

 

[RobW]

"certain 2021 model year Volkswagen ID.4 vehicles". Presumably, the e-mail was sent to those certain vehicles' owners of record.

 

[oobbyb]

Trimmed for brevity.


Your safety and that of your passengers is our highest priority. We apologize for any inconvenience this letter may cause and appreciate your patience as we continue to provide you with improved solutions and experiences.

Best Regards,

Rachael Zaluzec
SVP, Customer Experience & Brand Marketing
Volkswagen of America

Can the Volkswagen Suck get any worse?

Your safety and that of your passengers is our highest priority. Oh, but BTW, you can can lose power anywhere or anytime. See you again in Q2. You'll get a fix soon. What balls!

 

[JimmyVW]

Even worse, no mention when it will be fixed, other than a clear statement that you'll get the same message via first class mail in about 2 months. implying that a fix will take even longer.

 

[ErickF]

"certain 2021 model year Volkswagen ID.4 vehicles". Presumably, the e-mail was sent to those certain vehicles' owners of record.

It appears they sent it to all Model Year 2021 owners. I received the email though I do not have an affected vehicle per to items in NHTSA notice.

• Range of affected VIN's does not include First Edition (position 4 = D)
• Manufacture date does not include (at a minimum) the first wave of First Editions (my manufacture date was Feb 2020).

 

[Plant Peon]

Can the Volkswagen Suck get any worse?

Your safety and that of your passengers is our highest priority. Oh, but BTW, you can can lose power anywhere or anytime. See you again in Q2. You'll get a fix soon. What balls!

So would you rather they waited to communicate anything?
I am always hearing on this forum about how bad they are at keeping the customer informed. Now that they are trying to do that, the complaints are that they don't have all the information right away.

 

[meeshy1342]

We received this letter this morning as well. I had this happen to me as I was trying to accelerate through an intersection after being stopped at the light. Started to go through the intersection and then suddenly couldn't get the car to move forward, like the accelerator pedal wasn't doing anything and there were warnings about the electrical system going off all over the place, then after a minute or two, I was able to accelerate again and the warnings disappeared. What's even more concerning is, it does not appear that my vehicle is included in the current recall based on our VIN number. So unless/until they expand the recall, even though this happened to me, I wouldn't be eligible for whatever the fix is...

 

[EV-Driver]

I guess I'm glad that I'm retired and I don't have to depend on my car for daily use. The paragraph pertaining to what could happen if Pulse Inverter deactivates doesn't make me feel very confident about taking the car far from home. I feel bad for anyone who uses their car to commute regularly.

I've driven from Washington to California and back, (my longest trip), and I must say, I haven't experienced any of the problems that I read about. It's been a solid car as far as I'm concerned.

 

[shawnamarie0509]

What error message does it display?

I saw the email this afternoon and just joined this forum to say this might have happened me in January and February of 2021. Once leaving the car wash my car refused to accelerate, I pulled into the next parking lot and turned it off and on a bunch of times until finally it started working again. Once leaving my driveway, same thing. And then a few days later it just completely bricked and would not start. The dealer walked us through some physical reset in order to get it in for service. It seemed to be flashing every error message available, an exclamation mark thing, and all sorts of alerts about systems not being available such as "rear traffic alert is currently not available" and "travel assist is currently not available". The dealer didn't know how to fix it and ended up having someone from Germany walk them through it.

Maybe, maybe not. But based on this recall and my past experience this is the last Volkswagen I will own! Way too glitchy to put my kids' lives in danger!

 

[Atlant]

So would you rather they waited to communicate anything?
I am always hearing on this forum about how bad they are at keeping the customer informed. Now that they are trying to do that, the complaints are that they don't have all the information right away.

I'm glad they're communicating, but it does seem like they sat on valuable data for a long, long time (a year and a half, no?).

Of course, data like this could have definitely swayed the opinion of people weighing the purchase of an ID.4 during that year-and-a-half.

 

[thomas_y3]

Yes, and no mention of which vehicles are affected...

another thread had this posted in PDF... shows VIN # range.

2021 Recall 23V-040

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLRPT-23V040-5903.PDF Were no 2022s sold with the old software?

www.vwidtalk.com

 

[rschmitz]

and a very purposeful and DANGEROUS omission. "In the interim, if the recall condition described above occurs in your vehicle: 1) The driver will receive an immediate warning in the instrument cluster." They have failed to mention (and it has happened) that your vehicle may shut down immediately in traffic or dangerous situations, causing a possible accident, injury or death...this is the most disingenuous communication I have seen...should be (if it isn't) criminal. Glad I walked away from my 2021 before the used market for them tanked ...or worse yet, it caused an accident!

 

[JimmyVW]

another thread had this posted in PDF... shows VIN # range.

2021 Recall 23V-040

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLRPT-23V040-5903.PDF Were no 2022s sold with the old software?

www.vwidtalk.com

It's interesting to read that BMS firmware <930 is affected. This is something you can check yourself with carscanner or OBDeleven, but my honest guess is that any car still on 2.1 will be affected.
In Europe the cars that got updated to 2.4 got BMS firmware 930 installed as part of 2.4
I'm guessing that is why we don't hear much about it in Europe as they have been replacing the firmware for quite a while now here, and (hopefully) most cars have now been upgraded to 2.4 or higher.

Doesn't make sense that they stopped the upgrade to 3.1 in the US for this though, as I would expect 3.1 to have BMS firmware 930 or even higher as well.

[edit] Unless the newer BMS firmware doesn't update the Pulse inverter firmware and that might need the additional work in at the dealer to upgrade [/edit]

 

[HappyId4owner]

I was doubting my decision about getting rid of my iD4 but after getting the email regarding this I am so happy that I did.

The car is unreliable and a safety hazard.

 

[rschmitz]

Where is the NHTSA or DOT investigation into VW on this?

 

[TidingSStables]

I was doubting my decision about getting rid of my iD4 but after getting the email regarding this I am so happy that I did.

The car is unreliable and a safety hazard.

What did you replace your ID.4 with?

 

[rschmitz]

So would you rather they waited to communicate anything?
I am always hearing on this forum about how bad they are at keeping the customer informed. Now that they are trying to do that, the complaints are that they don't have all the information right away.

It's deeper than that. Trust me. I have been battling Herndon and Auburn Hills for months, their response has basically been "yours seems to be an isolated incident that can't be recreated, if you don't like it, get a lawyer and sue us" that last part is verbatim from an arbitration meeting. So it's not that they aren't sharing information, it's the fact that they were sitting on data that confirmed my experience, yet arrogantly and fraudulently withheld that information. It seems from a corporate culture perspective not much has changed at VW since Dieslegate.

 

[rschmitz]

What did you replace your ID.4 with?

Polestar P2...and a Lyriq in order.

 

[Nai3t]

...data like this could have definitely swayed the opinion of people weighing the purchase of an ID.4 during that year-and-a-half.

... and acting on the issue during that 1½ years could have also swayed opinions, or prevented the swaying, depending on which way one is looking at it. Baffling.