2021 Volkswagen ID.4

I took my car in for recall service repair which I was told would only be about two days. The dealership has now had my car for just about three weeks and they cannot give me an eta as to when the car will be finished. I am concerned about the length of time and quality of the repair since they have admitted to me that they are uncertain with how to proceed with the repairs. I took my car in to make sure it’s safe because it is our family car and I have been stuck with the loaner gas guzzler and still uncertain when I will get my car back and if it will even be safe.

Car displayed error while driving and immediately began to lose speed. Stopped in the middle of a 6 lane road with a posted speed limit of 35mph. Car would not go into drive. Turned car off and attempted to restart and put it back into drive, but did not work. Turned car off and waited 1 minute and tried again, turned car off a second time and waited 3 minutes. Car restarted with errors but was able to be put into drive and driven. The car was blocking a driving lane in the road for approximately five minutes with hazard lights on. If this has happened on a highway it would have been extremely dangerous.

On Monday, December 19, 2022, at approximately 1:30 p.m., driving at 70 miles per hour, my Volkswagen W ID.4 car suddenly lost electric power and I was unable to accelerate. I was driving on Highway 680 South, near the Livorna exit, on the Livorna Zone Express Lanes when this occurred in Contra Costa County, California. The car's user interface panel flashed the message, "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle." From the second lane on a four-lane highway, with the remaining speed, as the car dramatically slowed, I coasted to the right shoulder and came to a complete stop. During this entire time, there was no power. This was extremely dangerous and stressful as I was concerned of highway speed traffic approaching from behind and being unable to reach the shoulder safely without any power. There, at the right shoulder, I turned on the hazard lights and called my husband. He told me to exit and reenter the car, as safely as possible, to try to restart the system. I exited the car from the passenger side. When I reentered the car, the system restarted and the electric power returned. The vehicle had power again and I was able to safely re-enter the freeway lanes. This same error "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle" occurred previously two times when the vehicle was not moving (i.e. when trying to start driving from a stop) in the last year and a half. For these 2 previous incidents, my husband had opened service requests for repairs under warranty to the VW dealer in Walnut Creek, CA and they confirmed the faults and serviced the vehicle by bleeding the coolant system each time. Both times they assured me this would resolve the problem. This is the first time the same problem recurred while the vehicle was in motion resulting in total loss of power and put me in a dangerous situation.

The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact stated while starting the vehicle and exiting his driveway, the "All Wheel Drive Function Disabled", "Electrical System Failure", "Rear Assist Failure" and other unknown messages were displayed. The contact stated that the vehicle hesitated to respond while depressing the accelerator pedal. The contact also stated that the vehicle was slow to get up to speed while driving on a flat road surface. Additionally, the contact stated while driving at night, the exterior lights failed to illuminate as needed. The contact veered to the side of the road, turned off, and restarted the vehicle several times; however, the exterior lights failed to operate. The contact activated the hazard light and was able to drive to his destination. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed but no cause for the failure was found. The vehicle was then taken to a second dealer, Volkswagen of Smithtown (530 Jericho Turnpike, St James, NY 11780) where it was diagnosed that the Body Control Module (BCM) had failed and needed to be reprogrammed along with the vehicle key fob. The dealer completed the repair; however, the failure persisted. The contact stated while attempting to drive from a complete stop uphill, the vehicle failed to respond and started rolling backwards. The same warning messages were displayed. The contact parked and turned off the vehicle. The contact restarted the vehicle after an hour and 25 minutes and was able to continue driving. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not assist. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 12,500.

Car 12V battery drained. Car "dead". AAA jump-started and I drove home. Kept all unnecessary items off (heat, radio, etc). Put car on trickle charge overnight; charged to 90+%. After driving car for awhile, "12v battery low" message came on. 3 local dealers can't service until December. Known defect that battery is under-powered. VW has offered replacement sometime in early 2023. Meanwhile car sits in garage inoperable.

Dealer replaced infotainment unit but it continues to blank out, freeze and or restart. Very unsafe as you have to take eyes off road to force a restart, also if front windshield is foggy if infotainment system froze or restarting you are now driving with a fogged up windshield which you can’t see out off. Infotainment buttons do not work properly as they do not react to touch again take eyes off road to see whats happening. Infotainment screen and the other screen in front of driving wheel get very very hot. Only after showing dealer videos and recordings of all these occurrences with screen do they decide to do something about it such as change unit but problems persist. Vehicle rolls back on inclines when on a slight incline. Front end squeaks, VW dealer says is coming from the brakes and it’s normal operation. Stopping distances is increased in cold weather, in cold weather braking distances are longer. Side mirror buttons do not always control/adjust mirrors. Dynamic cornering headlight error/malfunction warning on screen constantly, safety risk. Vehicle cannot charge error (s) pop on screen and charging stops. After multiple tries and after changing to another charging stall, charging is able to resume. Factory celular connectivity drops for days and you have to pull fuse #17 or #19 to reset LTE connection. Vehicle has a lot of shortcomings which render it very very very unsafe.

The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen ID4. The contact stated while coming to a complete stop with the brake pedal being depressed, the vehicle lunged 3-5 feet forward. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated while driving 40-45 MPH, the steering wheel swerved unintendedly, causing the vehicle to veer towards the opposite lane of traffic. The contact was able to regain control of the steering wheel and continued driving. The contact stated that upon starting the vehicle, the gear shifter remained stuck in park(P) and failed to move after several attempts. A message indicating a major electrical failure was displayed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 11,657.

While driving the vehicle, error messages were displayed in the digital cluster indicating, among others, "electrical system not working, Safely stop vehicle", "I2V battery error", "Issue with all-wheel drive system", "Front/Travel Assist not working". In less than 10 seconds, the vehicle came to an unintended complete stop right as I was completing a left turn (to get the vehicle to the curb of the street) to park the car. A car was behind me and had to maneuver around me to proceed on its way. My daughter (in a child car seat in the back) and I were the only occupants and were at risk of a car collision because the car stopped moving in the middle of the road. I have now taken the car to a dealership for inspection. At the dealership, one of the representatives commented that this is not the first time they have seen this issue with this vehicle. I was less than a mile from my home when this happened. After 30 seconds of not responding, the car started operating normally as if nothing happened but still showed "electrical system not working, please service". I drove the car home. After about 30 or so minutes, I restarted the car and it operated fine and did not show any error messages. I have not been able to reproduce this issue but I have not driven it far (other than dropping it off at the dealership) due to fear of my safety.

The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V162000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

The Driver Assistance feature of the car shuts down due to a Software error. It will eventually reset if the car is parked and turned off for a duration of 30 to 60 minutes. Some users have reported that the error does not clear without disconnecting the 12v battery. Problem first appeared in the id.4 2021 models in the summer of 2021. VW has issued a software correction for the vehicle in Europe, but that update has not been made available for the US customers. This causes the collision avoidance system to go offline and the driver is warned to drive with extreme care! In some cases the vehicle speed also stops displaying.