Volkswagen’s battery recall has grown past 85,000 cars, and Audi is in it now

Volkswagen Group’s electric-vehicle battery recall now covers 85,402 cars worldwide after Audi added 12,734 Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron SUVs on October 28, 2026. The total combines 72,668 vehicles from three earlier campaigns with the new Audi group. The defect is the same in each, a battery that can enter thermal propagation when it is charged above 80% of capacity, and no permanent fix exists yet.

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Audi’s Q4 e-tron joins with 9,048 cars in the United States

Volkswagen Group of America submitted the Audi campaign to federal regulators on October 21 as recall 26V698, which Audi tracks internally as 93SK. It covers 9,048 vehicles: 7,040 Q4 e-tron SUVs built from December 4, 2023 to April 24, 2025, and 2,008 Q4 Sportback e-tron models built from November 30, 2023 to April 22, 2025, all in model years 2024 and 2025. Audi’s Product Safety Committee learned on September 21 of thermal events in other Volkswagen Group vehicles and decided on October 14 to recall voluntarily.

The filing, a copy of which is posted as a PDF, names the part as a high-voltage battery made by SK Battery Manufacturing in Hungary. It says some batteries may not meet quality standards and that a state of charge above 80% may trigger thermal propagation, which can cause a fire. The root cause remains under investigation, and the report warns the defect may not be detectable in advance. Audi states it is not aware of any claims, crashes, fires, injuries or deaths tied to the defect, and says it had no known field cases in its own vehicles.

Worldwide, Electrek counted 12,734 affected Audi models, most of them built for North America and one of them in Germany. Audi says its cars share the battery and production characteristics of the Volkswagen vehicles involved, which is why the recall followed so quickly after the group-wide thermal events.

Both Audi models are built by Volkswagen in Zwickau, Germany, because Audi has no North American EV plant, and both sit on the same MEB platform as the Volkswagen ID. cars. Electrive reports that the affected cells come from a specific batch made by SK Battery Manufacturing, part of the SK On Group, and that NHTSA says fires cannot be ruled out even though no incidents have been reported.

Three earlier campaigns supply the 72,668 base

Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, known as the KBA, lists the earlier campaigns, which cover the ID. Buzz, ID.3, ID.4 and ID.7 built from 2022 to 2025 and the Cupra Born built from 2022 to 2024. Of the 72,668 vehicles involved, 9,881 are in Germany. Electrive notes that the KBA lists the 12,734 Audi cars as built between November 30, 2023 and June 26, 2025, which leaves roughly 3,700 outside the United States with no registration country given.

The American side of the group recall began earlier in October. Electrek’s report on the ID.4 campaign says Volkswagen told NHTSA on October 6 that 22,524 ID.4 SUVs from model years 2023 to 2026 were affected, and that it had received 22 claims between January 18, 2024 and August 7, 2026. The group’s Product Safety Committee asked cell supplier SK Battery America for additional clarifications about production and a potential clean date.

Electrive also lists a separate American ID.4 campaign of 44,551 vehicles from Chattanooga earlier in 2026, which it attributes to misaligned electrodes in some cells. The cause behind the current recalls, by contrast, is still listed as unknown.

Volkswagen’s NHTSA report states the mechanism in one sentence: certain charging profiles combined with a state of charge over 80% may trigger thermal propagation.

An 80% charging cap is the only remedy on offer

Without a repair, the interim answer is a software and behavior limit. Volkswagen emailed ID.4 owners about a temporary setting that caps charging at 80% unless they had opted out by October 21. Audi owners in the United States are directed to an authorized dealer, which runs a battery diagnostic and applies the 80% limit where the data calls for it. Vehicles with no readable data, or whose data shows a concern, are advised to stay at 80%, and the report’s consumer advisory tells owners to avoid driving the vehicle and to park it outdoors.

Audi plans interim safety letters on December 18, 2026, with more mailed once a permanent remedy exists, and the report lists the remedy timing as still to be determined. Owners can reach Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834 or the NHTSA hotline at 1-888-327-4236, and the agency’s recall lookup accepts a VIN.

The unresolved question is scale. Electrek’s earlier ID.4 report also mentions a roughly 100,000-vehicle global battery recall from earlier in 2026, including nearly 44,000 American ID.4s, and the sources do not say how that campaign overlaps the 85,402 total. Until Volkswagen or the KBA reconciles the counts, the figure owners can verify is the one on their own VIN.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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