An issue with “oversensitive” diagnostics in the high-voltage battery management system of 2015 and 2016 Volkswagen e-Golfs has led Volkswagen of America to issue a recall for 5,561 affected vehicles, according to reports.
The issue involves the diagnostics system classifying brief internal electrical current peaks and surges as “critical battery conditions” — often (enough anyway) leading to emergency shut-downs of the high-voltage battery, and thus the vehicle. This in turn can of course lead to auto collisions and accidents.
The recall will see the battery management software updated, which will supposedly resolve the issue. This update will reportedly only take around 2 hours to finish, and is free of charge.
According to Volkswagen of America, the diagnostics system issue doesn’t affect the brakes, power steering, lights, or airbags, as these are linked to the 12V low-voltage system rather than the high-voltage battery system.
More information on the recall can be found here.
Not that kicking a man (a company in this case) when they’re down is necessarily the nicest thing to do, but in this case it seems necessary. The flaws inherent in many of Volkswagen’s recent offerings really have been coming to light as of late haven’t they? That’s probably something that’s bound to happen eventually when the underlying motives for a company’s actions are solely short-term profit, rather than the maintenance of a slowly built reputation for reliability.
While the German auto companies are seemingly continuing to coast on established reputation, issues with reliability and transparency are becoming more and more apparent in recent years. Changes clearly need to be made if the companies are going to remain major players in the international auto market.
One word: ota.