Volkswagen is recalling 5,561 electric vehicles because a bug in the battery management software can cause the cars to unexpectedly stall, creating a crash hazard. The recall includes certain model year 2015-2016 e-Golf vehicles. According to a NHTSA report:
Under certain conditions, oversensitive diagnostics in the high-voltage battery management system may inadvertently classify a brief internal electrical current surge/peak as a critical battery condition. This can cause an emergency shutdown of the high-voltage battery, which in turn deactivates the vehicle’s electrical drive motor. Unexpected shutdown of the vehicle’s electrical drive motor (“stalling”) can lead to a crash. Other vehicle systems like power steering, brakes, lights and airbags remain unaffected as they are powered by the 12V low voltage system.
Dealers will fix the problem by updating the battery management software. The revised software will contain a less sensitive diagnostic routine so that minor current peaks and surges won’t cause an emergency shutdown of the high voltage battery.
