The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, the German federal transport authority, has registered a recall campaign affecting a total of 94,031 electric vehicles from the Volkswagen group globally, of which 28,158 registered in Germany. The models involved are VW ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.Buzz and ID.Buzz Cargo, as well as the Cupra Born, with a separate but technically related campaign.
The affected vehicles were assembled in two German plants: the ID.3/4/5 family and the Cupra Born at the Zwickau plant, the two ID.Buzz derivatives at Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge in Hanover. For VW models the production period covered runs until 23 August 2024, while for the Cupra Born it runs from 7 February 2022 to 21 April 2024.
The defects found
The defect concerns the high voltage battery: some internal modules may not comply with the declared technical specifications, with consequences ranging from a decrease in autonomy to the turning on of a yellow warning light on the dashboard. In more serious cases, the KBA explicitly warns that there is a risk of fire. To date, there has been no damage to property or people attributable to the defect.
It is worth noting that for the models involved the group had purchased the battery cells from external suppliers, while the assembly of the modules had taken place internally. It is not yet clear from the official documentation what exactly the non-compliance detected consists of.
On the intervention front, the vehicles will receive a software update dedicated to the management and monitoring of the high voltage battery; the owners will be contacted directly by Volkswagen, but anyone wishing to anticipate the time can contact their authorized workshop indicating the recall code 93MI. In cases where the physical inspection reveals modules that are actually defective, they will be replaced.
This is not an isolated episode: a minor recall under the code 93MU had already been registered in January 2026 for 323 cars in the ID range, a sign that battery problems had emerged previously within the group.
Anyone wishing to check whether their vehicle is included in the recall can consult the KBA database using the official references 16271R (Volkswagen models) and 16269R (Cupra Born).
