Automaker Jaguar has announced a comprehensive recall of all its I-Pace electric vehicles in the United States, citing a potential risk of battery fires. The company is also advising customers to park outside until repairs are made and charge their vehicles outdoors so they don’t burn their houses down.
Electrek reports that Jaguar has announced a broad recall of all of its I-Pace electric vehicles in the United States due to a potential risk of battery fires. This action was taken in response to worries expressed regarding a potential battery problem resembling the one that forced a previous recall of the Chevy Bolt EV. Jaguar is advising customers to park and charge their vehicles outside due to the fire risk until repairs are completed.
Breitbart News reported on a Jaguar EV fire in 2022 that caught fire while charging in its owner’s home:
The Florida-based electric car owner, Gonzalo Salazar, told the outlet that he had purchased a brand new 2019 Jaguar I-Pace in 2020, and was driving the vehicle without issues for a few years, until one day the car caught fire in his garage, after having been charging for the night.
“On June 16, I plugged the car in before going to bed,” Salazar said. “In the morning of June 17, I woke up and unplugged the car. Later that morning, I set out to run some errands. I drove about 12 miles that morning before returning back home and parking the car back in the garage, leaving the garage door open.”
“As I was doing things at home, I heard pops coming from the garage,” he added. “I decided to go see where the sounds were coming from, and upon walking into the garage, I faced a thick wall of smoke. My thought immediately was, ‘When there is smoke there is fire,’ and I need to get the car out of the house garage.”
Concerns were first expressed in the wake of four separate I-Pace battery fires, which were eerily similar to the fires that prompted the recall of Chevy Bolt EV vehicles. Both cars use LG Energy battery cells, which were found to be the cause of the issue in the Bolt EV case.
Given the relatively low volume of I-Pace cars, the four fires are statistically significant, even more so than the dozens of Bolt EV fires. Despite the initial worries, it took the automaker a year to start the recall. Jaguar is now recalling all “2019-2024MY Jaguar I-PACE vehicles built at the Graz Vehicle Assembly Plant from June 5, 2018.”
According to Jaguar’s recall notice, the problem is a thermal overload that could cause the high voltage traction battery to burn or emit smoke. “Vehicles have experienced thermal overload which may show as smoke or fire, that may occur underneath the vehicle where the high voltage traction battery is located,” the notice read.
Jaguar is putting into practice a software-based fix to the problem, following Chevy’s lead with the Bolt EV. If a risk is identified, the software will keep track of the battery pack assembly’s operational status and limit the battery charging capacity to 75 percent.
“Recalled vehicles will receive an update to the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) software that will monitor the battery pack assembly operational status that indicates where the battery contains conditions which may lead to thermal overload condition,” the recall notice explained.
The affected battery module or pack will, if necessary, be replaced at no cost, according to the automaker. Some people, however, are disappointed by the news because they think Jaguar could have avoided some fires if they had addressed the problem sooner.
Read more at Electrek here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan