A Volkswagen ID.3 in Groningen, the Netherlands, was consumed by fire earlier this month as video footage posted by Meterniews shows.
The incident took place on the morning of Saturday, August 14 per the outlet, and happened moments after the driver unplugged her EV from its charging cable. After pulling out the cable, she put her child in the VW and noticed smoke emanating from the car. She immediately took her child out and got to a safe distance before the emergency services were called.
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Although the fire department rushed to the scene, the fire spread too quickly for it to be put out before the car was completely destroyed. A Nissan LEAF that was behind it suffered damage, too.
Although the cause of the fire is unknown, it’s part of a growing number of highly publicized electric vehicle fires. General Motors, for instance, recently announced that it would replace battery modules in certain Chevrolet Bolts as a result of fires. Hyundai, too, recently faced its own fire issues with the Kona EV, and it recently chose to simply drop the model from its home market of South Korea.
So far, we aren’t aware of any other cases of fires relating to the ID.3 or any other VW Group-related EVs. The ID.3 is based on the MEB platform, which also underpins models like the ID.4, the Cupra Born, and the Skoda Enyaq iV. If a fault were to affect them all, it could be very costly for the German automaker.
We have reached out to Volkswagen for comment on this story and will update it when we hear back.