The US Department of Transportation announced an investigation on Monday involving approximately 150,000 Ram trucks and Jeep SUVs that are facing issues with sudden engine stalls, which often result in the vehicles failing to restart.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 2022 RAM 1500 pickup trucks and 2022 Jeep Wagoneer SUVs are suffering from a sudden “loss of motive power” due to electrical problems that can cause the engine to shut down and have an intermittent ability to restart.
The Office of Defects Investigation has received 80 consumer complaints regarding engine stalls and power loss in these Stellantis-manufactured vehicles, which are powered by the FCA 5.7L Hemi eTorque hybrid engines.
Many complaints indicate that the engine would turn off unexpectedly, frequently while the vehicle is moving at a slow speed, resulting in the vehicle shifting into park and automatically engaging the emergency brake, according to the NHTSA.
So far, no injuries have been linked to this malfunction, and the NHTSA has initiated a preliminary investigation that could potentially lead to a recall. Stellantis stated that it is fully cooperating with the investigation.
This situation adds to the recent challenges for Stellantis, as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram all reported declining sales in the second quarter. Additionally, earlier this month, the government began a recall investigation on 94,000 Jeep Wranglers and in June, Stellantis had to recall over 1 million vehicles in North America due to a software bug that posed an increased risk of crashes.