Volkswagen Group of America has filed a safety recall covering 9,048 Audi Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron SUVs from the 2024 and 2025 model years. The NHTSA campaign number is 26V698. According to Electrek’s report, the company’s letter to the regulator is dated October 23. This guide covers what owners are being told, what is still unknown, and how the recall connects to the earlier ID.4 action.
What the recall says
The concern is thermal propagation, which is a battery fire spreading from one cell to others. Audi has not found the root cause yet. Until a permanent fix exists, the company advises owners to keep the battery at or below 80% charge.
Electrek reports that Audi’s Product Safety Committee was told about battery thermal events in other Volkswagen Group EVs that use the same batteries as the Q4 e-tron. An internal investigation then found the same battery and production characteristics in the Audi. Most of the affected vehicles were built for the North American market.
One detail matters for anyone who is worried: Audi says it is not aware of any claims, crashes, fires, injuries or deaths linked to this issue in the Q4 e-tron.
The ID.4 link
This follows a recall earlier in October of 22,524 Volkswagen ID.4 SUVs from model years 2023 to 2026. Volkswagen’s filing said that certain charging profiles combined with a state of charge above 80% may trigger thermal propagation. ID.4 owners received an email saying Volkswagen intended to apply a temporary setting limiting charging to 80% unless they opted out by October 21.
The Audi and the ID.4 share battery characteristics, according to Audi’s own investigation as relayed by Electrek. That is why the same stopgap, an 80% ceiling, is being used for both while engineers look for the cause.
What owners are told to do
- Take the car to an authorized Audi dealer, where a technician will run a diagnostic check on the battery.
- If the check calls for it, the dealer applies a temporary state-of-charge limit of 80%.
- Expect an interim notice letter. Electrek says Audi plans to mail these on December 18, 2026, with more letters once a remedy is ready.
Check your VIN on NHTSA’s recall lookup or ask a dealer to confirm whether your car is included. Only the 2024 and 2025 model years are named in this filing, so a 2026 Q4 e-tron is not covered by what the source describes.
What the sources do not tell us
Neither the source article nor the brief says how much range an 80% cap costs in daily driving, how long the fix will take, or what the permanent remedy will be. Anyone quoting a precise range loss is guessing. As a simple rule of thumb, which is my own analysis and not from the sources, an 80% ceiling means giving up about a fifth of the usable battery, so long road trips are where owners will feel it most.
Home charging angle
The sources do not discuss home charging, but most owners charge at home, so that is where the cap shows up day to day. This is general advice, not guidance from Audi. If the limit is applied inside the car by the dealer, you should not need to change anything about your wall charger or outlet. If you have been charging to 100% before long trips, plan on using public fast chargers more often until a fix arrives. Ask your dealer whether the cap is enforced by the car itself, so you do not have to remember to set it on every charge.
Should used-car shoppers worry?
Shoppers looking at a 2024 or 2025 Q4 e-tron should ask the seller whether the recall work has been done and whether the temporary limit is applied. Whether the recall will affect resale value is an open question, and one commenter under the Electrek article raised the worry. Treat that as speculation, not data.
Bottom line
The facts are narrow: 9,048 vehicles, a battery fire risk under certain conditions, no known incidents, an 80% limit as a stopgap, and a remedy still to come. If you own one, contact a dealer, get the diagnostic and watch your mail through the end of the year.
Sources
- Electrek: Volkswagen’s EV recall spreads to Audi, and owners are told to stop at 80% charge
- NHTSA recall lookup
Photo: Alexander Migl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (a Q4 e-tron shown at IAA 2021). Source page.