An issue with battery cells in an electric vehicle is never good news, but BMW seems to have detected a problem affecting its i4 and i5 models early enough to prevent it from escalating into a disaster.
The German carmaker has issued a safety recall that relates to a grand total of just four vehicles in the United States. Three of them are i4s, and both the i4 xDrive40 and i4 M50 have been caught up in this campaign. A single i5 eDrive40 is must also be recalled, and all four vehicles are from the 2024 model year.
However, BMW says that only one of the vehicles was actually in its owner’s possession, and it reached out to them on February 16. The other three are being repaired before they are delivered to their owners. The remedy will be relatively simple, if significant, as BMW plans to take out the high-voltage battery modules in affected vehicles and replace them with a completely new one.
Read: A Bad Charging Port Could Lead 69 Electric BMWs To Stall On The Road
The company was able to address this problem so quickly because it discovered it during an internal quality check on February 1, 2024. Its engineers noticed that the battery module in the vehicle in question was not adequately welded, and immediately launched an investigation.
BMW looked into the high-voltage battery assembly process and vehicle production logistics records, and determined that the laser welding process between the battery cell contacting system and the terminal had not been performed correctly.
It then established that battery modules with inadequate weld seems could allow the two parts to disconnect. That could lead the battery to overheat and, in rare cases, could lead to a fire. Since BMW was the one to reach out to the one owner whose vehicle was affected (and not the other way round), it is not aware of any accidents or injuries relating to this issue and has already more or less wrapped up this recall.
