Volkswagen and Audi have each asked owners of certain electric SUVs to stop charging to full. Volkswagen Group of America is recalling 22,524 model year 2023 through 2026 ID.4 crossovers, and Audi is recalling 9,048 Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron models from 2024 and 2025, because the high-voltage battery may fail and cause a fire. Both groups of owners are told to charge only to 80% of capacity until a repair exists.
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The two campaigns share a cause named in the filings, a failing traction battery, and an interim cap, but they are separate recalls with separate numbers, dates and owner letters.
The ID.4 campaign: 22,524 vehicles, 26V630000
Volkswagen’s filing is NHTSA campaign 26V630000, carried by the company as recall 93EX and received by the agency at the end of September. The record says the high voltage battery may fail and lead to a vehicle fire, and that a fire increases the risk of injury. It covers ID.4 vehicles from model years 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, and every one of the four model-year records repeats the 22,524 total. The remedy is still under development, owners are advised to charge to a maximum of 80%, and interim letters are expected to be mailed on Nov. 27, 2026. Volkswagen customer service is at 1-800-893-5298.
This was not the first ID.4 battery recall. Electrive, in its report on the October filing, said Volkswagen had issued two U.S. recalls covering 44,551 ID.4 vehicles in January, and called the new one “another” recall of the model.
The Audi campaign: 9,048 vehicles, 26V698000
Audi’s filing is campaign 26V698000, tracked by the company as 93SK and received by NHTSA on Oct. 21, 2026. It covers the 2024 and 2025 Audi Q4 e-tron and the 2024 and 2025 Q4 Sportback e-tron, a total of 9,048 units across four entries. The defect text matches the Volkswagen one: the high voltage battery may fail and cause a fire. The remedy is still under development and the instruction is the same, charge only to 80% capacity until repairs are complete.
The Audi vehicle identification numbers became searchable on NHTSA’s site on Oct. 23, and interim letters are expected on Dec. 18, 2026, three weeks after the Volkswagen letters. Audi customer service can be reached at 1-800-253-2834.
Because the two filings were made three weeks apart, owners in the same household or fleet can end up holding different instructions on different dates. A family with a 2024 ID.4 and a 2025 Q4 e-tron would receive Volkswagen’s interim letter on or about Nov. 27 and Audi’s on or about Dec. 18, even though both cars carry the same cap and the same unfinished repair. The records list no remedy date for either brand, only that additional letters will follow once a remedy is available.
The size difference is also worth stating. The ID.4 recall is about two and a half times the Audi one, 22,524 vehicles against 9,048, and it spans four model years against two. Those 31,572 vehicles together are a modest group by recall standards, but the instruction they carry is unusual: it asks an owner to give up part of the battery that was paid for.
The 80% charge cap and the cells behind it
Electrive reports that Volkswagen told it the batteries may experience thermal runaway under specific charging profiles combined with a state of charge above 80%, and that the exact cause has not yet been clarified. The outlet names SK Battery America as the cell supplier. That is the reasoning behind the cap: if the risk rises when a pack is more than 80% full, keeping the charge below that line is the only measure available while engineers work on a fix.
For some models, the outlet adds, the limit may be set technically to 80% and warning messages will appear in the vehicle as an interim measure. The NHTSA records themselves say only that owners should charge to the cap, and they give no rated range penalty. They also do not name the cell supplier or the failure mode, so the thermal-runaway description is Volkswagen’s account to the trade press, not language from either federal filing, and it should be read as the company’s working theory while the cause remains unclarified.
The practical cost is range. An ID.4 or Q4 e-tron owner who stops at 80% carries a fifth less energy in the pack on every trip, which matters most for those who take long drives and had relied on a full charge. Reference rows for the two filings appear in NHTSA’s open data for reports received from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7 and from Oct. 21 onward, and owners can enter a VIN on NHTSA’s recall lookup to see which, if either, applies to their car.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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