According to the German magazine Auto motor und sport, BMW will call all its plug-in hybrid models manufactured from March to August this year for service and temporarily suspend their deliveries. You may short-circuit the battery while charging. The convening event may therefore be related to the June BMW fire in Čestlice near Prague.
Action applies to plug-in hybrids in all model lines in which the Munich carmaker offers them, ie sedans and station wagons series 3, 5 and 7, MPV series 2 Active Tourer and SUV X1, X2, X3 and X5. The technically related Mini Countryman is also a problem. All cars were manufactured between March 13 and August 6 this year.
The cause is insufficiently cleaned welds on the battery. Regardless of the size of the bosses, these welds can cause battery failure, such as a short circuit, during initial charging. This can, of course, have other far-reaching consequences. For this reason, BMW has temporarily stopped supplying its plug-in hybrid models to customers and is organizing a call-up event to check the batteries.
For now, owners should avoid charging their cars on public or home chargers. It is said that it is possible to use recharging the battery while driving with restrictions. BMW will inform the owner about the date of the service visit. It is said that the battery will take 30 minutes to check and other necessary adjustments will be made to the car accordingly. Everything is free.
Almost 4,500 cars are to be serviced worldwide. “In the Czech Republic, the event concerns 23 cars. Thanks to the fact that the problem was discovered relatively early, most of them are still at the dealers,” says David Haidinger from the Czech BMW office.
The carmaker claims that it does not know that poorly cleaned welds would result in an accident. In the Czech Republic, however, at the end of June, one plug-in hybrid BMW 3 Series began to burn during charging in the service in Čestlice near Prague. “The investigation is not over yet, but the fire was caused by the car’s traction battery,” Libor Pospíšil, an investigator from Central Bohemian firefighters, told Aktuálně.cz. So far, Czech BMW does not want to confirm the connection between the convening event and the fire in Čestlice, with reference to the ongoing investigation, but also to refute it.
In any case, BMW is not the only carmaker that, for safety reasons, had to stop deliveries of its hybrids to the outlet and send the pieces already sold for a forced service visit. Ford thus convening a plug-in hybrid version of its new Kuga SUV produced by June 26 this year. In this case, the escape of hot gases from the battery or other high-voltage components could cause a fire.
In total, around 27,000 Ford Kugas and the identical Escape are affected by this problem. According to Martin Linhart, a spokesman for the Czech Ford, the Czech owners have already received an invitation letter to the service station, and repairs will begin later this week.
Until then, car owners should not charge the car from an outlet or charging station and prevent the battery from being recharged by the internal combustion engine while driving. They have to switch it to Auto EV mode. Newer cars are supposed to be in order and there is no danger to them, according to Ford.
Contrary to BMW’s official statement, Ford has reported several cases of plug-in hybrid Kuga fires. For both carmakers, however, similar complications are unpleasant; on hybrids, they build their strategy on successful compliance with European limits on carbon dioxide emissions.
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