- A risk of battery fire is responsible for this recall
- Owners are told to park their vehicle away from buildings and to not charge it
- Only 83 units of the i4 and iX will need to receive a new battery pack
BMW is having to recall 83 units of its new electric cars, the i4 and the iX due to a risk of battery fire caused by a manufacturing defect.
According to the automaker, one of the cathode plates in the battery pack might have been damaged during manufacturing by Samsung SDI, which could cause debris to be present in the cells.
While driving or charging, this debris can move around and create a short circuit, which could set the vehicle on fire.
This is why BMW and the NHTSA have issued a Do Not Drive notice to owners of the vehicles equipped with the suspect battery packs.
In addition to not being able to drive their vehicle or charge it, owners will need to park their i4 or iX outdoors, away from other vehicles and from buildings.
The solution to this problem will be to change the entire battery pack for one that has not been damaged.
This is a very similar situation to the massive recall that affected the Chevrolet Bolt about a year ago, but thankfully for BMW, the scale of this recall is much smaller, with only 27 units of the i4 sedan and 56 units of the iX SUV.
The reason this number is so low is because of the slow ramp-up of the production rate, but also because the batteries used for the i4 and the iX are made by two suppliers and only those made by Samsung are at risk.
Owners will receive an official letter to warn them of the issue starting on September 19, but due to the severity of this problem, BMW will call the owners of every recalled vehicle as soon as possible. Loaner vehicles should also be made available for every affected owner until the new battery packs are available.
