Audi has not issued many recall announcements, but each time was a big deal.
Recently, FAW-Volkswagen plans to recall 104,200 imported and domestic Audi cars, and is carried out under the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration of China to start defect investigation.
Due to the intervention of the regulatory authorities, Audi makes “passive recall” this time. Xiao Hong, a car observer, said that the implementation of passive recalls by car companies, after many consumer complaints, attracted the attention of the relevant departments, and then the defect investigation of the vehicles involved.
The recall is also the third time in the year Audi recalls cars, in February and April this year, Audi recalled 124,800 cars and 192,000 cars respectively. Among them, the cars recalled in February were also “passive recall”.
Audi recalled a total of 421,000 vehicles in 2021, of which 229,000 were “passive recalls”, accounting for 54% of the total number of recalls during the year.
And, if Audi can reach 600,000 units in sales in the first October, figuratively speaking, 7 out of every 10 cars sold by the company will be recalled.
Imported Audi was recalled after 5 months of driving
On October 19, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration of China issued an announcement showing that recently, FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. according to the relevant requirements, filed a recall plan with the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, decided to recall some imported and domestic Audi cars from October 22, 2021.
The recalled cars include some imported A6Avant 2.0T and A72.0T vehicles produced from September 9, 2020 to May 5, 2021, a total of 1,785 vehicles; some domestic A6L 2.0T vehicles produced from March 18, 2020 to August 11, 2021, a total of 102,400 vehicles, the recall of a total of 104,200 vehicles.
The announcement shows that the vehicles in the recall range due to the engine and transmission control unit software cooperation problems, at lower speeds when the vehicle from first gear to second gear, if the driver suddenly change driving intention to release the gas pedal, “engine stall protection mechanism” will be triggered during the gear change, resulting in engine output Torque increases, engine speed will slightly increase, there may be a sudden increase in speed of 3-5km/h within 1-2 seconds, which will increase the possibility of an accident, there is a safety hazard.
From the production time of the recalled cars, Audi’s part of the imported cars were recalled after more than 5 months, and some of the domestic cars were even driven for only 2 months.
FAW-Volkswagen said it will entrust Audi authorized dealers to upgrade the engine control unit and transmission control unit software for the recalled vehicles free of charge to eliminate safety hazards.
The announcement stressed that the recall was carried out under the defect investigation initiated by the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration. Affected by the investigation, FAW-Volkswagen decided to take recall measures to eliminate the safety hazards.
Due to the intervention of regulatory authorities, Audi made a “passive recall”.
Xiao Hong, an automotive observer, said that the implementation of passive recalls by car companies indicates that many consumer complaints have drawn the attention of the relevant departments, and then the defective investigation of the vehicles involved.
On April 2, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration of China also issued an announcement that FAW-Volkswagen decided to recall some of the domestic A6L 40TFSI and A6L 45TFSI cars produced from February 8, 2018 to July 27, 2020 from April 16, 2021, a total of 192,000 units.
The announcement shows that the vehicles within the scope of this recall, due to problems in the manufacturing process of the heat insulation board supplier, some heat insulation boards may be poorly pressed together, there is layered deformation, after using a period of time individual heat insulation boards may occur with the exhaust pipe local overlap, heat carbonization situation. In extreme cases, the EPDM in the middle layer may be in full contact with oxygen and cause the heat shield to catch fire, which is a potential safety hazard.
FAW-Volkswagen said it will entrust authorized Audi dealers to replace the optimized heat shields for the vehicles within the recall area free of charge to eliminate the safety hazard.
The recall was carried out without mentioning the defect investigation initiated by the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, as it was an “active recall”.
Passive recall of 229,000 vehicles accounts for 54% of the total
However, Audi’s “active recall” is not considered active.
On February 26, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration issued an announcement showing that, recently, FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co decided to recall some imported and domestic Audi cars from February 26, 2021.
The recalled cars include some domestic A6L 2.0T vehicles produced from April 25, 2018 to November 24, 2020, totaling 118,100 vehicles; some imported A6Avant 2.0T and A72.0T vehicles produced from October 14, 2019 to November 13, 2020, totaling 6,724 vehicles, the recall totals 124,800 vehicles.
The announcement shows that the vehicles within the recall range are under specific operating conditions when the engine is idling, the imperfect learning function of the camshaft regulator drive algorithm in the engine control unit may lead to deviations in the results, causing the camshaft not to be adjusted to the correct position, which may lead to unstable engine operation, and in extreme cases the engine may stop running, with potential safety hazards.
FAW-Volkswagen said it will entrust authorized Audi dealers to upgrade the engine control unit software for the vehicles within the recall area free of charge to eliminate the safety hazard.
As the same, the announcement shows that the recall activity is carried out under the defect investigation initiated by the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration. Affected by the investigation, FAW-Volkswagen decided to take recall measures to eliminate safety hazards.
In addition, the recall announcement also shows that the recalled cars include some domestic Audi Q3 vehicles produced from September 25, 2019 to January 6, 2020, a total of 2 units.
The vehicles within the scope of this recall may have a size deviation of the pulley in the steering due to the supplier’s manufacturing reasons, leading to the possibility that the circlip may not be installed correctly during the assembly process. In extreme cases, the spring may come off and catch the surrounding parts, which may cause the steering system to lock up, posing a safety hazard.
Only the two recalled cars are not mentioned again were carried out under a regulatory defect investigation and are active recalls, however they are not worth mentioning compared to the 124,800 vehicles recalled.
Overall, Audi has issued three recall announcements since 2021, recalling a total of 421,000 cars. Of these, two Audi recalls were passive recalls, totaling 229,000 vehicles, accounting for 54 percent of the total recalls during the year.
Volkswagen Group’s recently announced sales show that the Audi brand’s cumulative sales in China in the third quarter of 2021 were 563,600 units, up 9.9% year-on-year. Of these, demand for imported models was particularly strong, up 85.6 percent year-on-year, with 64,200 units delivered, while sales of domestically produced models rose 4.4 percent year-on-year, with 498,600 units delivered.
However, affected by the chip shortage, only 4,142 units of the Audi A6L were sold in September, a year-on-year decline of 78 percent.
If Audi sales increase in October, the first ten months’ sales can reach 600,000 units, figuratively speaking, for every 10 cars sold by Audi, 7 were recalled. Source