Volkswagen and Cupra recall 94,000 electric cars due to fire risk

Volkswagen and Cupra will recall a total of 94,000 electric cars, manufactured between February 7, 2022, and August 23, 2024, in the case of Volkswagen models, and between February 7, 2022, and April 21, 2024, in the case of Cupra models, due to a problem detected with the battery module of the electric cars Cupra Born and Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.Buzz.Although no fire cases have been reported, affected units can register incidents in the battery pack, which generate a warning on the dashboard and a significant reduction in the vehicle's autonomy, and in extreme cases can ultimately result in a thermal overload that causes the batteries to catch fire.This incident, detected by the German vehicle approval authority (KBA), can be resolved through a check at an official dealership, where, based on a software update of the vehicle, the actual condition of each battery module can be thoroughly analyzed. In case any module is found to be operating irregularly, it will be replaced with a new one, without the inspection and possible replacement incurring any cost for the customers.Cupra sources have confirmed that this incident may affect around 500 registered Cupra Born units currently in circulation in Spain, and they recommend that customers do not charge the batteries above 80% of their capacity and do so outdoors before the car has been checked by the brand's technical service. However, the first reports indicate that a total of 19,500 units of the Cupra Born manufactured between February 2022 and April 2024 have been sold worldwide. In fact, the first three units that reported this incident were three Cupra Borns manufactured in 2023 and operating in Australia, which in early January of the same year, coinciding with the Australian summer, overheated the battery modules and caused small fires in the car.At this point, it is worth noting that all affected models (the Cupra Born and the Volkswagen ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.Buzz) have been manufactured at the German plant in Zwickau, where the Audi Q4 e-tron is also produced. However, unlike the rest of the models, Audi's electric car has not been recalled and does not appear to suffer from the same issue as the Volkswagen and Cupra cars.An electric leadership still to consolidate

Although the registered incident is not serious and that the official Volkswagen and Cupra services can resolve it with a software reprogramming and the replacement of faulty modules, it is clear to everyone that this recall catches the Volkswagen group at a delicate moment. And it is that, despite Volkswagen becoming the main manufacturer of electric cars in 2025, the sales figures for these models are still far from the objectives set in 2019, when the new electric strategy of the Lower Saxony group was presented.