NHTSA complaint #11706683

Owner complaint summary

The charging system light came on. My wife went to charge at public charging station due to being close to one. After plugging in the van, it said charging failed. She unplugged the charged went to back up and the van died. Had to have it towed to dealer. Dealer states even though the van is in the warranty period, the IDCM which is up under the van is scuffed and therefore isn’t warrantied. They said there is a big dent in the muffler also so we must have ran over something and caused the damage even though we live in a city with paved streets, a subdivision with paved streets, and have a concrete driveway at our home. They said they have sent me emails with the pictures which I have yet to recieve. I went to the dealer and asked them to jack up my van so I can see the damage personally and they don’t have a lift available at the time, so I told them I would be back in town at a certain time from work and to call me so I could see it and they have yet to show me the scuffed IDCM module or the dented muffler. We haven’t run over anything to cause this kind of damage to a module like this because all the hybrid batteries are under the van. If the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is so cheaply made for a $62,000 vehicle that something can “scuff” a module housing and shut a vehicle down, this is potentially very dangerous if someone were driving on the highway if it were to shutdown and someone (including myself or any of my family) were driving and lose all propulsion and steering (because it’s electric steering) or worse braking! It could be catastrophic with people dying. This needs to be investigated to see how fragile this component is and if they need to “toughen” it up or re-locate it. Versus trying to get by and get around paying warranty claims or hoping nothing happens until the units break down after the warranty period not knowing of the Safety hazard they have created for their vehicle owners and the driving public.