Stellantis announced on Tuesday that it will recall 375,000 plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee SUVs worldwide due to battery failure. There have been 19 reports of fires and the group is urging owners to park their vehicles outdoors until the problem is fixed.
This recall covers some 2020 to 2025 Jeep Wrangler 4xe and 2022 to 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe SUV.
The company says a fix for the recall is coming soon, but until then, owners should park their vehicles away from buildings and avoid charging because of the risk of fire.
Stratis Group notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it has received 19 reports of fires related to this issue, and one person was injured as a result. About 320,000 of the recalled vehicles are located in the United States.
The automaker said the batteries involved were produced by Samsung SDI. An investigation jointly conducted by Strantis and Samsung SDI showed that the cause of a fire earlier this year was consistent with the defect in the 2024 recall. In 2024, there were two reports of injuries to plug-in hybrid Jeep electric vehicles. The group recalled 154,000 related vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration pointed out that vehicles that have been repaired during recalls in 2023 and 2024 still need to be inspected again this time.
Samsung SDI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Strantis said that Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee plug-in models that have had their software upgraded during the 2024 recall have so far received 9 reports of battery fires; in addition, there are 10 fire reports from vehicle batteries that are not included in the 2024 recall.
Samsung SDI said that the most likely root cause of the problem is "battery separator damage", accompanied by other complex reactions inside the battery cells.
In addition, Stratis Group recalled more than 298,000 vehicles in the United States in October because of the "risk of rolling" of these vehicles.