Audi Recalls 9,048 Q4 e-tron EVs for Battery Fire Risk — Owners Told to Stop at 80%
Audi doesn't know what is causing the battery fault in 9,048 2024–25 Q4s. It is the second VW Group EV in a month to get the same charging cap.
Audi is recalling 9,048 Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron SUVs from the 2024 and 2025 model years in the U.S. because their high-voltage batteries could overheat and catch fire. There is no repair yet, so owners are being told not to charge past 80% until one exists.
If that instruction sounds familiar, it should. Earlier this month, Volkswagen gave the same advice to the owners of 22,524 ID.4s, as we covered in our report on the ID.4 battery recall. Both SUVs ride on VW Group's MEB electric platform, and in both cases the automaker says it still doesn't know what is causing the fault.
What the filing says
The campaign, NHTSA number 26V698 (Audi code 93SK), was filed on October 21, and affected VINs became searchable on NHTSA's recall lookup on October 23, Motor1 reports. Audi's defect report says the exact root cause remains under active investigation. The concern is thermal propagation, where one overheating cell passes heat to its neighbors, with the risk tied to a state of charge above 80%.
The trigger came from elsewhere in the group. According to Electrek's reading of the filing, Audi's product safety committee learned on September 21 of battery thermal events in other VW Group EVs, then found that its own cars share the same battery and production characteristics.
Audi says it knows of no crashes, fires, or injuries involving its vehicles.
What owners should do
Until a fix is ready, keep the charge limit at 80% or lower. Dealers will run a battery diagnostic and, where needed, set a temporary 80% cap in software. Interim letters go out on December 18, and a second letter will follow once the permanent repair is available. The work will be free. Owners can call Audi at 1-800-253-2834 or the NHTSA hotline at 1-888-327-4236.
For shoppers, the advice in our used EV buying guide applies: run the VIN through NHTSA before you buy, and expect a 2024 or 2025 Q4 to lose some usable range while the cap is in place.
Why it matters
The ID.4 recall offers a rough sense of scale. VW estimates that about 0.1% of those vehicles, roughly one in 1,000, actually have the defect, and it has not found the cause either. In Europe, VW Group's own recall of about 72,700 ID.3, ID.4, ID.7, ID. Buzz, and Cupra Born EVs also limits charging to 80% for now, electrive reports; the Q4 is not on that list.
For Audi, the recall lands on a model that has nearly stopped selling here. Audi of America delivered eight Q4 e-trons in the third quarter, down from 2,956 a year earlier, as its Q3 sales report showed. That means the burden falls almost entirely on people who already own one.
Audi hasn't said which cell batches are involved, when the permanent fix will arrive, whether Q4s outside the U.S. are affected, or the exact build dates of the recalled vehicles.
