2023 Volkswagen ID.4 Fuel System Problems

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

Date/Time of Incident: 1/29/36 at approximately 5:44 PM Location: Small school parking lot Vehicle: 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 On 1/29/36 at approximately 5:44 PM, I was pulling out of a parking space at low speed in a small school parking lot in my 2023 Volkswagen ID.4. As I began to move, the vehicle suddenly accelerated on its own, the steering would not turn left, and the car did not respond to braking, moving at an abnormal rate of speed over a very short distance. Prior to this, there had been no warning messages or alerts, except a routine notification to service the car in 1,000 miles. The collision involved three vehicles: my VW, the main car I hit, and a rental car. My car spun and veered sideways, the parked SUV on the right was pushed sideways, forming a rough "H" pattern, and the rental car went up onto a rail ramp where children walk. …

I was charging at Electrify America charging station for approximately 20 minutes when suddenly I felt the ID.4 shaking and then seconds later I was surrounded by smoke coming from outside and beneath the ID.4. The ID.4 was not turned on and was completely stationary. I unplugged the vehicle. During this time I made a best effort to not inhale but it happened so quickly that it was unavoidable. The smoke smelled really toxic and tasted like chemicals. I felt nauseous and woozy afterwards. I called 911 to report the smoke coming out of my ID.4. Call was made at 6pm, seconds after the smoke started pouring out. The vehicle was releasing extreme amounts of cloudy thick white smoke and it completely engulfed the ID.4 itself. There was also an orange/pink-like liquid pouring out of the left side of the vehicle from the bottom. …

Automatic parking assist and reverse braking systems exhibit severe, recurring malfunctions causing collisions and injuries. On May 24, 2025, at approx. 4:10 PM, auto-park uncommanded the vehicle to strike a mailbox in a familiar spot. Dealer dismissed incident without diagnostics. Beyond this collision, the vehicle exhibits frequent, violent, unintended braking during reverse. This occurs when: Turning body to look back: System abruptly locks brakes, causing whiplash-like neck pain to me. Dealer stated this was "normal" for "driver seating" despite explanation. Encountering minor obstacles: System misidentifies leaves/garbage bins as threats, engaging full, hard braking. This causes extreme distress and has violently thrown passengers forward. …

My car popped up a messaging stating "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle." I called in for service and the dealer told me that the message was not urgent as it was a yellow message and that they would not be able to get me in until Tuesday. I continued to drive the car and the message would come and go for two days. On the last day, I got the message and heard an electrical whirring noise when pressing the accelerator. Then the sound and message went away. Later that evening when charging, the fans were running extremely loud so I got the car out of my garage to avoid it catching fire. I called VW who said that I could drive it to the dealer. I left my house and the car popped up the message and then said it was disabling functions. It never said to pull over. Then a turtle popped up and my speed was dropped to 45 mph. …

I am driving home from work and I'm right around the corner from my house. As soon as I try to make a turn, the car begins beeping and the faults "Electrical system malfunction" and "12V power supply" show up. My car does not accelerate, I lose power steering, and I can no longer move while I'm still in the middle of the road with cars around me. Thankfully, there was a slight downhill that allowed me to coast somewhat off the road, but I had to push this 4600+ lbs car (by myself) further so it wasn't sticking out. I had to get 4 other people to help push the car to my house across a residential collector road which took ~20 mins just to go a couple hundred feet. This is the THIRD time of this occurring, twice I've been to the dealership, and twice they told me they couldn't replicate the issue. …

20122 miles 7/31/2023 - Infotainment screen would reboot at random. I was also receiving the 12V battery message still and the electrical system error Dropped vehicle off at AutoNation VW for the 20000-mile service. Mark Daddario said that sometimes it's how the customer drives the EV's that makes the errors come up but couldn't tell me anyway I was driving it incorrectly. I left the vehicle asking them to perform the maintenance, perform the door handle recall, and replace the flat tire under my VW Care tire protection plan. I left the vehicle with them for several days while I was out of town. Upon picking up the vehicle Chris Guilkey told me everything was performed, but the system was down so they couldn't give me any paperwork. He handed me the key and pointed to my vehicle which was returned to me with 17% charge. …

The car came to a sudden unexpected stop from about 10 miles per hour. Everything shut down and the car came to a harsh stop, skipping/shuddering/stuttering. Happened so fast and unexpectedly that it startled me. Almost like the brakes were locking up and pulsing. But no brakes were ever applied by me. After coming to a complete stop car was completely dark. I tried to press the brake pedal to start it and nothing. Tried the brake pedal a second time and it turned on allowing me to drive away. Shortly after this event a thumping or banging noise started to occur when I accelerate or decelerate. Almost like something is loose below my feet. Weird thing is the sound is not constant. Comes and goes. Seems to be triggered after I make a right turn. Car has been at the dealer since November 28,2023 for this issue and is still at the dealer as of December 5, 2023 . …

30722 miles 12/12/23 - Vehicle continued to give the parking sensors error even after ensuring they were cleaned. The error will go away intermittently and then come back. Also got an error about parking assist not working. These errors never occurred before the 30000-mile service. Vehicle started giving electrical system errors and 12v battery errors again and had to be towed to Findlay Volkswagen St. George. The vehicle was in the shop 24 days, and I only received one email response from Pam Mahony-Coufal that the tech was still working with VW on the issue, and she would let me know when they were done. Texts and emails to check the status were met with no response. When I asked about a loaner, vehicle service manager Bryan said there were none available, and if there were one, it can't be taken out of state. …

While driving my vehicle it shifts into "park", not sure if it is an electrical issue, transmission, or breaking issue. I have taken to the dealership for repairs they worked on the driver seat sensors, was at the dealership for 10 days. Three days after repairs the same issue occurred, took back to the dealership and they informed me that they could not recreate the issue(possible electrical issue), the service advisor suggested that I should not move around in the seat while driving to correct the issue. Again about three days later the same issue occurred again, this time in heavy traffic and it was difficult to get into "drive", I have returned the car back to the dealership. At this time, I asked the service manager to take a ride with me, he seemed very surprised when the issue occurred with him in the drivers seat, he also had a hard time getting the car into drive. …

The car spontaneously came to a stop in the middle of the road and would not start again. The displayed showed plenty of battery charge/miles of range left, meaning the issue was not a dead battery. There were several error messages, notably one indicating that the car could not be put into drive because it was still connected to a charging cable. Being that the car was in the middle of the road, the car was not connected to a charger. I was unable to put the car into neutral in order to move it to the side of the road and out from the middle of traffic because the car kept indicating that it could not move with a charging cable still attached. The safety of myself and others was put at risk because my car spontaneously stopped in the middle of the road with no warning. …

Fuel System complaints in other ID.4 years