NHTSA complaint #11498125

Owner complaint summary

On Monday, December 19, 2022, at approximately 1:30 p.m., driving at 70 miles per hour, my Volkswagen W ID.4 car suddenly lost electric power and I was unable to accelerate. I was driving on Highway 680 South, near the Livorna exit, on the Livorna Zone Express Lanes when this occurred in Contra Costa County, California. The car's user interface panel flashed the message, "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle." From the second lane on a four-lane highway, with the remaining speed, as the car dramatically slowed, I coasted to the right shoulder and came to a complete stop. During this entire time, there was no power. This was extremely dangerous and stressful as I was concerned of highway speed traffic approaching from behind and being unable to reach the shoulder safely without any power. There, at the right shoulder, I turned on the hazard lights and called my husband. He told me to exit and reenter the car, as safely as possible, to try to restart the system. I exited the car from the passenger side. When I reentered the car, the system restarted and the electric power returned. The vehicle had power again and I was able to safely re-enter the freeway lanes. This same error "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle" occurred previously two times when the vehicle was not moving (i.e. when trying to start driving from a stop) in the last year and a half. For these 2 previous incidents, my husband had opened service requests for repairs under warranty to the VW dealer in Walnut Creek, CA and they confirmed the faults and serviced the vehicle by bleeding the coolant system each time. Both times they assured me this would resolve the problem. This is the first time the same problem recurred while the vehicle was in motion resulting in total loss of power and put me in a dangerous situation.