Audi and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a recall affecting certain 2022 and 2023 e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT models, which may fail to detect a passenger sitting in the front seat and deactivate the airbag accordingly. Although no injuries have been reported relating to the campaign, it nevertheless represents a significant safety issue. The 3,773-unit recall seems to affect the majority of the models built for those years – Audi sold 5,477 e-tron GTs during the 2022 and 2023 calendar years.
Owners Will Get An Audible And Visible Alert Of The Issue
According to an Audi memo sent to its dealers relating to the recall, a manufacturing error may cause the passenger occupant detection system to indicate a malfunction and switch off the front airbag, even if there’s a person sitting in the co-pilot seat. In that event, a warning chime will sound and an alert will show up on the car’s instrument cluster reading, “Passenger Airbag OFF.” That alert is the first clue for the owner that their car may be included in the recall.
Audi doesn’t have a fix for the issue just yet according to its dealer memo, although the NHTSA announcement suggests that the automaker will just replace the seat cushion on affected vehicles. The agency suggested that Audi will begin notifying owners of the recall around June 6. As with any other significant vehicle quality issue, the company’s dealers will perform the repair free of charge, although the memo does posit that performing work out of the scope of the recall – i.e. repairing the problem for a customer who brings in their car before the fix is discovered – will not be reimbursable. So if you can wait to drive your fancy Audi EV, that might be a good idea.
Audi Isn’t Alone This Week
The German automaker wasn’t the only one to announce recalls recently. Stellantis needs to fix around 50,000 Dodge Hornet and Alfa Romeo Tonale models, whose rearview camera display may not activate properly, and Ford announced three separate recalls in a single day last week to fix more than 150,000 vehicles. Volvo, meanwhile, is asking around 7,500 of its plug-in owners not to plug in, citing a fire risk for the high-voltage battery.
Despite the seeming epidemic of quality problems in the automotive industry, the issue might actually be getting better. Ford’s 1.2 million vehicle recalls through the first four months of 2025 actually represent an improvement from its joke-worthy performance last year, and many of those vehicles are subject to a mere software update to fix their problems. Many of the Blue Oval’s recalls-on-recalls were discovered as part of a self-imposed audit on software issues, rather than official government intervention, so maybe we ought to give the company some credit for fixing things before it’s told to.
The New E-Tron Isn’t Affected
The recently facelifted 2025 e-tron GT isn’t being recalled, which is a good thing for owners of the addictingly swift, 912-horsepower RS Performance model. The cousin to the Porsche Taycan is Audi’s most powerful model in history, with a 0-60 time of under 2.5 seconds in ideal conditions. That amount of speed requires a big safety net, so we’re glad the new e-tron GT isn’t subject to the airbag recall.
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