The special first edition of the Volkswagen ID.3 that was limited to 30,000 units has already sold out. There is already a waiting list more than 20,000 names deep. All those prospective owners may be in for a long wait as problems continue to plague the production of the electric VW.
In December, it was revealed that the ID.3’s software platform, vw.OS, didn’t work as it contained a number of serious coding flaws. Despite these problems, VW continued to manufacture the vehicles with the problem software, and planned to have technicians with mobile consoles manually update the affected vehicles when a fix was developed.
Now based on a new report from Germany’s Manager Magazin, that might have been a bad idea. VW engineers are now saying the modules “often do not understand each other”. These problems have further delayed the first fixes, which were planned to occur this month to the first 10,000 vehicles.
VW is clearly taking the issue seriously as the ID.3 is viewed with the same brand importance as the Beetle and Golf. They reportedly have over 10,000 technicians from both inside and outside the company trying to tackle the software issues. Various teams meet twice daily, and test fixes every day. However, it was revealed that up to 300 software bugs are still being reported each day.
The German automaker still plans to officially launch the ID.3 in summer 2020, while rumours circulate these problems could impact the first deliveries by as little as 3 months, and maybe even a full year.
If there are significant delays it could mean a hefty fine of €10 billion for failing to meet mandated CO2 emissions levels. To avoid the fine, VW needs to sell 100,000 ID.3 and 70,000 Audi e-trons (which is also facing production delays due to battery shortages).
h/t [Autoblog]
