NHTSA Complaint #11565007 — 2021 AUDI Q8

The alternator on my Audi Q8 SUV died AS I WAS DRIVING IT, leaving my vehicle with no power. I was left to coast down the 50-60 MPH highway I was driving on into a turn lane, where the vehicle stopped and could not be restarted. My safety was put at risk because I was on a highway in a car that stopped operating suddenly and catastrophically. If I had not been able to coast into a turn lane, the car would have left me in a high-speed lane. I waited for a tow truck over two hours, the first hour inside the vehicle, the second outside on a small concrete lane divider. The last hour I spent directing live traffic to slow down and pass my vehicle, which was in the left-turn lane, and whose warning flasher lights had ceased working when the battery was depleted. The vehicle was towed to an Audi service department, where the vehicle was inspected, the failure diagnosed, and the failure corrected by replacing the alternator and recharging the battery. The first symptom of any problem was an error message the evening before when hands-free entry was denied (I had to use my key fob to enter the vehicle instead of placing my hand inside the door handle). Also, the dashboard displayed an error message directing me to contact a service department. In the morning, I called my local Audi service department to report the issue and was given an appointment time for the following morning. I had errands to run, so I took the vehicle on the aforementioned highway, when error messages indicating the loss of availability of various electrical and safety systems (e.g., Lane Departure warning, Lane Assist, Park assist, etc.) began to flash suddenly, one after the other, on my dashboard. The battery icon began glowing first yellow, then red, then flashing between yellow and red. There was one more message about the transmission being in trouble and that I should stop the car safely. At that moment, I lost powered forward propulsion and began to coast, as indicated above.