Apparently the doors on some Volkswagen ID.4 models open while driving
The Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen) has reportedly alerted its dealers across the U.S and Canada to pause the selling of its ID.4 electric SUV models as the German carmaker says that the doors on some of these cars could potentially open while one is driving slowly. As of now, there is still no solution.
Various reports of the Volkswagen ID.4 electric vehicle’s (EV) doors opening on their own started surfacing as early as January 2023 and about a month later, Volkswagen reportedly spoke to the U.S National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the concern.
Moreover, Volkswagen supplier, U-Shin Ltd. began to work on an analysis of the potentially failing door parts. Since then, the automaker has issued a recall based on the initial findings of 10 ID.4 SUVs with doors that may randomly open on their own. All of these cars were produced at the company’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Volkswagen even released a statement which included the quote, “… Due to quality control issues at a supplier, parts that did not conform to our specifications were delivered to the Chattanooga plant.”
The brand added, “Among other issues, the part may allow moisture to enter the electronic board integrated in the door handle. In turn, this may allow the vehicle door to open unintentionally while driving or the vehicle door may no longer be opened from the outside and/or inside…”
At this point, Volkswagen has noted that some 16,000 ID.4 electric SUVs produced at the factory in Tennessee may have a potential issue with its doors. Volkswagen said that the door handles may stop working properly as a result of water seeping in so will owners have to keep their car out of rain at all times?
Volkswagen also added that this could “cause a situation where a vehicle door could open unexpectedly,” and Volkswagen reportedly issued a stop-sale related to the door concerns on 3 April 2023. The notice for the stop in sales indicates that there is not yet a fix ready to solve the problem.
On top of that, Volkswagen has also reportedly recalled a number of ID.4 vehicles. With that said, this is turning out to be an alarming trend with many new EVs as so many of them are facing many problems. Whether this is due to a shortage of supplies or if this is just manufacturer negligence remains to be seen though.
Thankfully, there have been no reports of anyone getting into accidents or being injured as a result of this door defect and Volkswagen is surely working around the clock to figure out why this is happening and how to fix it so hopefully this problem is fixed soon and we in Malaysia will never face such issues with the brand’s ID cars.
We got all this from InsideEVs and their full article is linked here. Thank you InsideEVs for the information and image.
