T7 problems, latest news?

[Salty]

I happily strolled into our local dealership to order a new vehicle after 9 years of fun with our T6. They look great and placed my order for a t7 Ehybrid, which is perfect for my local travels and once a year holidays. But, and I know I should have done the research first, I’ve seen all the terrible reviews around the electrical systems, leisure battery etc etc. I’ve placed my order on hold for now, but could any T7 owners please let me know if the issues have now been resolved for those bought last year, and if any newer owners have had problems as well. I’ve been reassured by the salesman that out of 12 customers that he has had handed over to this year, none have had had issues. It seems to have been sorted. Here’s hoping anyway, gagging for my new van. Thanks.

 

[WelshGas]

I happily strolled into our local dealership to order a new vehicle after 9 years of fun with our T6. They look great and placed my order for a t7 Ehybrid, which is perfect for my local travels and once a year holidays. But, and I know I should have done the research first, I’ve seen all the terrible reviews around the electrical systems, leisure battery etc etc. I’ve placed my order on hold for now, but could any T7 owners please let me know if the issues have now been resolved for those bought last year, and if any newer owners have had problems as well. I’ve been reassured by the salesman that out of 12 customers that he has had handed over to this year, none have had had issues. It seems to have been sorted. Here’s hoping anyway, gagging for my new van. Thanks.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this screen you’ll see Similar Threads which should answer your query.

 

[Canary]

I was gonna say the same, but yes I had a leisure battery fault and it was dealt with promptly as per my previous thread, and I can honestly say I have recieved pretty decent customer service from our VW dealer. Very happy with our purchase!

 

[Dixiewixie]

Had a new t7 ehybrid since early April after 7 years of a t6, no regrets and no issues

 

[Calstugre]

I’m about to return my new Ocean T7 (not eHybrid) which I bought 3 weeks ago. I too hadn’t researched well enough and naively bought a “great deal” July 2025 with only a few hundred miles. Leisure battery discharged from the day of delivery, 2 week wait for it to go back in for repair and I’ve been messed about so much now I’ve rejected it thankfully in my 30 days still. Hoping to source a new 2026 model so will watch your thread with interest, hoping 2026 brings T7s without battery issues.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rubinstein]

mines coming up for a year old now, had the software update done last year when it first became available, not had issues since. 2.0tdi ocean, not done many miles, leisure batteries require top up charge after standing for about 3 weeks which was the same as my 6.1, I'm happy with the van but not so much VW because of shrinking the cali dealer network.

 

[stoobthealien]

No issues here and from what I can see, no issues with vans delivered in 2026. It seems as if the issues are around the older mid 2025 models

 

[Rubinstein]

I happily strolled into our local dealership to order a new vehicle after 9 years of fun with our T6. They look great and placed my order for a t7 Ehybrid, which is perfect for my local travels and once a year holidays. But, and I know I should have done the research first, I’ve seen all the terrible reviews around the electrical systems, leisure battery etc etc. I’ve placed my order on hold for now, but could any T7 owners please let me know if the issues have now been resolved for those bought last year, and if any newer owners have had problems as well. I’ve been reassured by the salesman that out of 12 customers that he has had handed over to this year, none have had had issues. It seems to have been sorted. Here’s hoping anyway, gagging for my new van. Thanks.

Let us know what you end up doing mate

 

[sticky1]

I think VW have done a pretty poor job of explaining the leisure battery capacity and what that might mean for people using the van with little experience of how much the fridge and using the USB sockets to charge phones etc. will deplete the leisure batteries in a couple of days.
I still see the starter battery in the new California app as not being full even after driving for a couple of hours (just looking at the green battery icon).
However the voltage indicates that it is probably fully charged, does anyone know is this down to the smart alternator?

 

[WelshGas]

I think VW have done a pretty poor job of explaining the leisure battery capacity and what that might mean for people using the van with little experience of how much the fridge and using the USB sockets to charge phones etc. will deplete the leisure batteries in a couple of days.
I still see the starter battery in the new California app as not being full even after driving for a couple of hours (just looking at the green battery icon).
However the voltage indicates that it is probably fully charged, does anyone know is this down to the smart alternator?

Under the Euro5/6 requirements VW use a Smart Alternator system to produce charging power via Regenerative Braking when slowing down. In order for this to work efficiently there needs to be room in the battery to absorb this " free" power. Thus the engine + leisure batteries on the California are only charged to 80% capacity in normal operation/driving.
This limit can be overcome by using the " Max Power" button on the Dashboard or using the heated seats or Headlights as this switches the alternator to give maximum power, fully charge all batteries to 100% and keep them at 100%.
Using the Mains onboard charger on EHU also charges all batteries to 100% capacity.

 

[stoobthealien]

Under the Euro5/6 requirements VW use a Smart Alternator system to produce charging power via Regenerative Braking when slowing down. In order for this to work efficiently there needs to be room in the battery to absorb this " free" power. Thus the engine + leisure batteries on the California are only charged to 80% capacity in normal operation/driving.
This limit can be overcome by using the " Max Power" button on the Dashboard or using the heated seats or Headlights as this switches the alternator to give maximum power, fully charge all batteries to 100% and keep them at 100%.
Using the Mains onboard charger on EHU also charges all batteries to 100% capacity.

I'm not sure that's true for the leisure battery, mine charges to 100 percent without using the max power button

 

[WelshGas]

I'm not sure that's true for the leisure battery, mine charges to 100 percent without using the max power button

The Control Panel shows 100%, but what is shown is determined by the VW software..
Lithium batteries show little voltage change between 80 - 100% capacity.

 

[Souter]

Bought our California Coast (Diesel) in France in February 2026. Had a main battery issue when we collected it. Garage said after an hours drive it would be charged. Drove from Lille to MK via Dunkirk/Dover, yellow warning light still on. Contacted VW commercial in MK and to cut a very long story short, they diagnosed a fault and had it fixed through VW Assistance France and warranty within 2 days. No issues since and all appears to be working insofar as all the things we have used. Tend only to use what we need and controls in the van as opposed to messing with controlling things via apps. We downsized from a Globecar(Fiat Ducato) which we’d had for 8 years so had an idea about leisure battery use/consumption and other van stuff.

 

[Neelo19701976]

Got my new T7 beach in March. No issues so far, but I’ve hardly driven it tbh. I did have issues with the leisure batt in the T6 and that was never ever resolved. Fingers crossed on our trip to Spain we don’t encounter any issues.

 

[LUMINA86]

I had a problem with the roof. The part where the antenna is placed, had a tiny crack due to temperature changes or something else. In any case, it rained inside and the water ended up in the interior ceiling light, causing malfunctions and strange lights to come on. Since it's under warranty, they're replacing the part. I also noticed that the plastic on the uprights had come loose slightly in the heat. They fixed those too. Everything else is fine. From Italy. Beach camper T7.

 

[Adam8374]

I have phev t7 since October. It's not perfect, but it's good enough. No serious problems with the batteries, all works well

 

[RB_101_RB]

Hi All. Long time lurker!

We’ve been back and forth with the dealership since pickup of our diesel Cali Ocean in late July last year over a number of issues. Leisure battery management being the big one, the roller assembly of the driver side sliding door collapsing and damaging the runners, the pop roof not closing evenly, plus a whole list of snags that we were mostly told were ‘just how these vehicles are’ - like a little tongue of the rubber sticking down below the passenger side sliding door seal. It’s been emotional!

There are a couple of ongoing issues that we’d like to get your experiences on:

We find that the system than manages the distance sensors can often be really laggy - emergency braking when reversing because the van saw something that wasn’t there, or when turning right across traffic and the van shouting at us about a vehicle that has gone past a couple of car lengths ago. Anyone else seen this?

Also having fun with the 360 camera system. If we line up to a white line according to the 360 image on screen, the line is still about a metre in front of the van in reality. Dealership checked this on another Cali and found it to be equally detached from reality, so have closed the case. Pretty peeved about this one. Have any of you experienced this one either?

 

[sticky1]

Hi All. Long time lurker!

We’ve been back and forth with the dealership since pickup of our diesel Cali Ocean in late July last year over a number of issues. Leisure battery management being the big one, the roller assembly of the driver side sliding door collapsing and damaging the runners, the pop roof not closing evenly, plus a whole list of snags that we were mostly told were ‘just how these vehicles are’ - like a little tongue of the rubber sticking down below the passenger side sliding door seal. It’s been emotional!

There are a couple of ongoing issues that we’d like to get your experiences on:

We find that the system than manages the distance sensors can often be really laggy - emergency braking when reversing because the van saw something that wasn’t there, or when turning right across traffic and the van shouting at us about a vehicle that has gone past a couple of car lengths ago. Anyone else seen this?

Also having fun with the 360 camera system. If we line up to a white line according to the 360 image on screen, the line is still about a metre in front of the van in reality. Dealership checked this on another Cali and found it to be equally detached from reality, so have closed the case. Pretty peeved about this one. Have any of you experienced this one either?

Very similar to my experience, it’s a bit frustrating as parking sensors are so useful in a van.
I have also had the random automatic emergency stop when reversing and jumped out to see nothing there.

 

[Pjd61]

Under the Euro5/6 requirements VW use a Smart Alternator system to produce charging power via Regenerative Braking when slowing down. In order for this to work efficiently there needs to be room in the battery to absorb this " free" power. Thus the engine + leisure batteries on the California are only charged to 80% capacity in normal operation/driving.
This limit can be overcome by using the " Max Power" button on the Dashboard or using the heated seats or Headlights as this switches the alternator to give maximum power, fully charge all batteries to 100% and keep them at 100%.
Using the Mains onboard charger on EHU also charges all batteries to 100% capacity.

I have a late 2026 T7 Ocean and read about this 80% limit , so good to understand the reasons.. However the displays always show 100% for engine and leisure when driving the vehicle and the leisures discharge to about 40% by around 3 weeks of no use. As this is first campervan dont know if thats right.. but we manage it ok?

 

[Pjd61]

Hi All. Long time lurker!

We’ve been back and forth with the dealership since pickup of our diesel Cali Ocean in late July last year over a number of issues. Leisure battery management being the big one, the roller assembly of the driver side sliding door collapsing and damaging the runners, the pop roof not closing evenly, plus a whole list of snags that we were mostly told were ‘just how these vehicles are’ - like a little tongue of the rubber sticking down below the passenger side sliding door seal. It’s been emotional!

There are a couple of ongoing issues that we’d like to get your experiences on:

We find that the system than manages the distance sensors can often be really laggy - emergency braking when reversing because the van saw something that wasn’t there, or when turning right across traffic and the van shouting at us about a vehicle that has gone past a couple of car lengths ago. Anyone else seen this?

Also having fun with the 360 camera system. If we line up to a white line according to the 360 image on screen, the line is still about a metre in front of the van in reality. Dealership checked this on another Cali and found it to be equally detached from reality, so have closed the case. Pretty peeved about this one. Have any of you experienced this one either?

I have similar concerns about collision detection system on our late 2025 model. Which was apparently built with the updated software after earlier 2025 issues. I have had emergency brake application at roundabouts, where it detects crossing vehicles and then applies brakes so you cant join the roundabout… very disconcerting.

 

[Pjd61]

I have a late 2026 T7 Ocean and read about this 80% limit , so good to understand the reasons.. However the displays always show 100% for engine and leisure when driving the vehicle and the leisures discharge to about 40% by around 3 weeks of no use. As this is first campervan dont know if thats right.. but we manage it ok?

Typo. Late 2025 (October)

 

[Chriskend]

I have a late 2026 T7 Ocean and read about this 80% limit , so good to understand the reasons.. However the displays always show 100% for engine and leisure when driving the vehicle and the leisures discharge to about 40% by around 3 weeks of no use. As this is first campervan dont know if thats right.. but we manage it ok?

that’s about the same as mine on the discharge rate, mine also charges to 100% while driving without pressing the charge button.

 

[Pjd61]

I think VW have done a pretty poor job of explaining the leisure battery capacity and what that might mean for people using the van with little experience of how much the fridge and using the USB sockets to charge phones etc. will deplete the leisure batteries in a couple of days.
I still see the starter battery in the new California app as not being full even after driving for a couple of hours (just looking at the green battery icon).
However the voltage indicates that it is probably fully charged, does anyone know is this down to the smart alternator?

We have worked out that with our T7 Hybrid, if you use the electric/hybrid driving function to save some hybrid battery - say 20% whilst driving to a campsite, if you are not on EHU, you can use this saved capacity to recharge the leisure batreries after a couple of days by just turning on the ignition. Also can use the a/c to heat/warm the vehicle rather than petrol heater etc. The dealership didn't know or tell us anything about that ..

 

[WelshGas]

I have a late 2026 T7 Ocean and read about this 80% limit , so good to understand the reasons.. However the displays always show 100% for engine and leisure when driving the vehicle and the leisures discharge to about 40% by around 3 weeks of no use. As this is first campervan dont know if thats right.. but we manage it ok?

As I've said before the 100% is what VW have decided to show on the screen. A simple line of coding in the software such as " if true battery capacity is 80% or greater then Display 100% ".
It keeps the owner happy and ensures proper smart alternator/ emissions control function.
With Lithium batteries very small voltage difference between 80 and 100% capacity.

 

[DynamoD]

I happily strolled into our local dealership to order a new vehicle after 9 years of fun with our T6. They look great and placed my order for a t7 Ehybrid, which is perfect for my local travels and once a year holidays. But, and I know I should have done the research first, I’ve seen all the terrible reviews around the electrical systems, leisure battery etc etc. I’ve placed my order on hold for now, but could any T7 owners please let me know if the issues have now been resolved for those bought last year, and if any newer owners have had problems as well. I’ve been reassured by the salesman that out of 12 customers that he has had handed over to this year, none have had had issues. It seems to have been sorted. Here’s hoping anyway, gagging for my new van. Thanks.

Ive only had mine t7 Ehybrid 2 weeks but so far no issues at all.