Vehicle
2021 JEEP WRANGLER
Manufacturer
Chrysler (FCA US, LLC)
Components
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Dates
Incident: 05/28/2021
Filed: 05/31/2021
Owner complaint summary
I have a brand new 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe, which is a hybrid and electric vehicle, which gives about 30 miles on a full battery charge. Since the electric mode distance is limited, the car has a hybrid and gas-only mode that runs on gas for when the battery needs a charge after 30 miles. The following problem occurred over 10 times in a 2 day timeframe: The vehicle gave a dashboard warning that stated "service charging system" and "service transmission" plus my Jeep app gave a message "a charge fault has occurred." Within 10 seconds, the entire car shut off. At the time, I was going 60 mph on a freeway. This nearly caused a 10-car pile up, but I was fortunately able to get onto the shoulder despite the entire electrical system shutting down. I was lucky, because after 10 seconds, the car came to an immediate stop and I could not move it at all. At the time, I had two-thirds full tank of gas. I was able to start the engine about 15 minutes later. Shortly thereafter, the same problem occurred again after about 5 minutes of driving. This sequence repeated itself over 10 times until I was able to get towed to a nearby dealership. I was advised that the battery needed to be charged and this problem would not occur. This is an unacceptable explanation, since this vehicle has a gas-only mode to account for the 30 mile electrical battery distance. The following day, I got a full charge, but the problem happened again on the freeway, this time with 20% battery remaining and a one-half tank of gas. I had to get towed for the second time in two days. This is a very dangerous problem. This car should be recalled. Someone could have died due to the car completely shutting off while on a freeway and coming to a total half after only 10 seconds. The Jeep 4xe online forum reports 10 separate episodes of the same problem. I have attached a pdf of the formum to prove this is a recurrent issue. I am certain that someone will suffer a fatality from this recurrent problem.
Official record ID (ODI): 11419109. This page is the human-readable source link used across afterwarranty. The raw JSON link proxies NHTSA's public API for machine verification; prefer this page when reading the complaint.