The safety question

The safety question FCA already answered.

The most important issue here is not lost convenience — it is safety. And on the safety question, the manufacturer has already gone on record.

Exhibit — FCA Safety Recall Z71 / NHTSA 22V-768

The manufacturer's own words

A loss of motive power is not a minor drivability complaint to the manufacturer. In a federal safety recall, FCA described that exact outcome as a crash hazard.

Exhibit · FCA Safety Recall Z71 / NHTSA 22V-768 FCA Dealer Service Instructions for Safety Recall Z71 / NHTSA 22V-768, December 2022, High Voltage Battery Fuse, stating that excessive heat may cause the fuse to fail resulting in a loss of motive power which can cause a vehicle crash without prior warning.
FCA Safety Recall Z71 / NHTSA 22V-768 (December 2022). In its own dealer service instructions, FCA states that a loss of motive power "can cause a vehicle crash without prior warning."
...loss of motive power, which can cause a vehicle crash without prior warning. — FCA, Safety Recall Z71 / NHTSA 22V-768

The principle

The same outcome, held to one standard

In that recall, a fuse failure that could cause a loss of motive power was treated as a serious safety defect — serious enough to recall vehicles, because, in FCA's own words, it can cause a crash without warning.

This vehicle experiences the same outcome: a sudden loss of motive power during normal driving, without warning. The cause is different — a software power limit rather than a failed fuse — but the result for the driver is identical.

So both of these cannot be true at the same time:

  1. A loss of motive power is a crash hazard requiring a recall — FCA's position in Recall Z71.
  2. A loss of motive power is "operating as designed" and normal — the position taken on this vehicle.

The danger is defined by what happens to the driver — the vehicle loses power and may not respond — not by which component, or which software, caused it. A loss of motive power is a loss of motive power.

Note · scope of this exhibit

Recall Z71 / 22V-768 concerns a battery fuse fastener and is a separate matter from the software-related power loss documented on this site. It is cited here only because it establishes the manufacturer's own position that a loss of motive power is a safety hazard — not as a claim that this vehicle falls under that recall.

And this is no longer only a 2022 fuse recall — the manufacturer has now named software-caused loss of drive power in the 4xe itself. There is now a federal recall acknowledging exactly this — see NHTSA Recall A7C →

Put the loss of power on the safety record.

If you've experienced a sudden loss of power, NHTSA is where it counts as a safety issue — formally, on the record.

Report a loss of drive power to NHTSA →

~10 min · free · the report regulators actually count