KBA's three VW battery campaigns sit behind the 80% cap

The 80 percent figure Volkswagen owners are seeing is not the American ID.4 recall restated for Europe. Germany's motor-transport authority, the KBA, has three campaigns on its books, and Volkswagen's UK site is telling ID.3, ID.4 and ID.7 drivers that a charge past 80 percent can overheat the pack. The US notice, 22,524 ID.4s under NHTSA campaign 26V630, remains a separate filing. Volkswagen has not published a table that shows whether any car sits in both, so the two counts should not be added.

Electrek, citing the KBA, put the three campaigns at 72,668 vehicles worldwide, including 9,881 in Germany. The cars are certain batches of the ID.3, ID.4, ID.7 and ID. Buzz built between 2022 and 2025, and Cupra Born models from 2022 to 2024. The manufacturer codes Electrek lists against the KBA are 93MF, 93MV and, for the Born, 93W4. dpa's account of the same KBA data, published on 20 October, described a recall of nearly 72,700 electric cars, with some 10,000 of them in Germany, and the same model list.

Volkswagen's explanation, given to dpa, was: "In rare cases, this can lead to increased thermal stress on these batteries; in extreme cases, a fire could break out." The cause, the company told dpa, is production defects at suppliers over a limited period. dpa also reported Volkswagen's view that a software update might be enough on some cars, and that modules would not necessarily be replaced. Electrek described the same failure mode: certain charging profiles, combined with a state of charge over 80 percent, may trigger thermal propagation.

The Volkswagen UK page for codes 93MV and 93MF is narrower than the KBA list. It names the ID.3, ID.4 and ID.7, with high-voltage batteries from a specific supplier between 2022 and 2025. It does not, on that page, name the ID. Buzz or the Born. The instruction is direct. "When the battery is charged to over 80%, overheating may occur, posing a fire risk." The factory is limiting affected cars to 80 percent, in most cases remotely. A car that has not taken the limit should be put into Battery Care Mode in the app or on the screen. DC charging still works. The restriction, Volkswagen says, changes how full the battery may be, not which charger can be used, and it "reduces the load of the high-voltage battery and increases the safety reserve until the measure is carried out."

The page splits the harm questions. Volkswagen says there are no confirmed cases of personal injury. It also says there have been individual cases of property damage. A fault need not be visible, so a car that drives normally can still be inside the campaign. The supplier is not named. Volkswagen says it cannot give details.

The fix is not one operation. Some owners will be asked to a retailer for a physical check of the high-voltage battery. For others, Volkswagen says, a software solution may be applied. The check takes about an hour, needs an appointment, and can only be done at an authorised retailer. Modules are replaced if the inspection calls for it. The work is free. When it is finished, Volkswagen says the original charging parameters, and therefore the original range, are restored. Until the letter arrives, the car can be driven if it stays at or below 80 percent. A yellow warning lamp means a call to a retailer.

Electrek's US reporting on the ID.4 used a different manufacturer code, 93EX, and the NHTSA campaign 26V630. The KBA codes are 93MF, 93MV and 93W4. The UK page shows that 93MV and 93MF do not ask the same thing of every car: some are capped remotely, some are called in, some may be cleared in software. Treating the phrase as one worldwide switch hides which of those a given car is in.

An owner in Britain can check the UK page and wait for the letter. An owner of an ID. Buzz or a Born has to look at the KBA codes, because that UK page does not list them. Nobody, on the documents published so far, has a date for when the 80 percent ceiling comes off.