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It has been communicated to U.S. consumers by BMW and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the local highway safety portfolio authority, that must urgently stop driving or charging their electric BMW iX and i4, with NHTSA also providing guidance on the best places to park vehicles. As always, it’s the US market that reacts the fastest to security issues, despite the fact that all iXs and i4s on the road are currently only made in Germany, including those marketed in Portugal.
As with other manufacturers, BMW also has to deal with battery-related safety issues. More precisely with the cells used for the formation of packor one possible risk of short circuit in the high voltage circuit may cause a fire.
The cells in question are not manufactured by BMW, a manufacturer which has not yet invested in this capacity, but purchased from two external suppliers, namely the South Koreans of Samsung and the Chinese of CATL, any indication that they may be suffering from a manufacturing defect. The cells are imported, then the cells are trained. packs which will be installed in the vehicles, close to the factories where they are produced, the i4 at the Munich factory and the iX at the Dingolfing factory, both in Germany.
In addition to public notices via the to place of the NHTSA, which we reproduce here, BMW will contact each owner directly. And the fact that this is a call for the workshop classified as “urgent” will certainly deserve the attention of those concerned.
The number of vehicles involved in this recall is very small, because BMW’s electric SUV and sedan only started hitting the US market recently, the brand estimating that there are only 83 units at risk (56 iX and 27 i4). Much higher is the number of units sold of these two models in Europe, even in Portugal, for which there is no information.
