BMW Recalls iX, i4, and i7 Due to Problems in Battery Control

BMW has to recall thousands of vehicles. There are problems in the battery control of the BMW iX, i4, and i7 that can lead to a spontaneous shutdown. It only continues after a restart.

A small glitch

It’s an awkward and potentially dangerous flaw that BMW needs to address in some of its electric cars. According to a report by The Verge, the company is obliged by legal templates to recall more than 14,000 vehicles in the USA, and similar campaigns are also underway in China, Japan, and Korea. In Germany and other affected markets, BMW can fix the error in the iX, i4, and i7 models remotely via a software update, the company said when asked by Golem. A so-called “technical campaign” has been running for this since the end of December 2022.

BMW states that it encountered a problem with the “electronic control unit for the high-voltage battery” during the internal quality check. This can lead to an incorrect diagnosis within the electronics for battery management. The consequence, which according to the company can occur in “very rare cases”: The control unit is reset, and the power supply is interrupted.

If the vehicle is parked at this moment, charging may be aborted. On the other hand, if the error occurs while driving, the result can be a spontaneous loss of performance or the vehicle coasting completely. In this case, the driver receives a corresponding Check Control message and can continue driving after a restart.

Repeatedly improving

BMW has had to start a recall for its new electric car models for the second time in just a few months. At the end of last year, the company in China acknowledged serious manufacturing defects in the batteries, which lead to a high risk of over-session. However, the number of vehicles affected in this case was extremely small.