Park Your Car Now! Jeep Warns Owners of 375,000 PHEVs Batteries Could Fail and Catch Fire

Stellantis has become the latest automaker to warn owners to park their vehicles becuase defective batteries could cause them to catch fire. The recall covers 375,000 Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrids. More from Headlight.News.

Stellantis has issued a recall covering 375,000 Jeep plug-in hybrids due to a risk of battery failures that could cause the vehicles to catch fire.

The automaker has advised owners to park the Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe models and not charge them until repairs can be made. The vast majority of the SUVs were sold in the United States.

The service action is the latest in a series of recent recalls triggered by potential battery failures affecting both EVs and PHEVs – though safety experts stress that there is a lower risk of fires involving battery-based vehicles than for those powered by internal combustion engines.

What’s new

According to data filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there have been 19 reports of fires, resulting in several injuries, involving the Jeep Wranger 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe. Pronounced “four-by-e,” that’s the badge used for the brand’s PHEVs. They are capable of driving around 25 miles in all-electric mode. Otherwise, their gas-electric drivelines function as more conventional hybrids systems.

The recall was triggered by an internal investigation into a vehicle fire early this year that resulted in an injury. It found the cause to be the same defect that was involved in a 2024 recall covering 154,000 Jeep PHEVs. Two injuries were caused by those earlier fires.

The defect involves Samsung SDI lithium-ion batteries, the Korean manufacturer stating the root cause was likely damage to the separators used inside the cells, along with other defects.

What vehicles are covered

In all, Stellantis is recalling 375,000 of the plug-in hybrids worldwide. About 320,000 of them were sold in the United States. Those figures include some 4xe models that were previously covered by recalls in 2023 In all, Stellantis is recalling 375,000 of the plug-in hybrids worldwide. About 320,000 of them were sold in the United States. Those figures include some 4xe models that were previously covered by recalls in 2023 and 2024. The latter service action involved 154,000 Jeep plug-ins.

The affected models are Jeep Wrangler 4xe SUVs from the 202 through 2025 model-years, along with Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe models sold between the 2022 through 2026 model years.

For the moment, Jeep said it does not have a fix in place, though one is expected shortly. Until repairs can be made, however, it has advised owners to park the vehicles outside and away from any structures, such as a garage or carport.

More Auto Safety News

• Ford Recalls Nearly 2 Million Vehicles for Faulty Backup Cameras
• Jeep Recalls 150,000 4xe Models Due to Fire Risk
• Ford Set an All-Time Annual Recall Record – by June

Battery recalls have escalated

With more and more EVs and PHEVs on the road the number of recalls related to potential battery fires has escalated over the last several years:

• Last month, Porsche recalled 27,000 Taycan EV sports cars from the 2020 to 2024 model years due t a risk of fire;
• That followed a recall covering 2020 and 2021 Nissan Leaf EVs because of a risk of fire when plugged into DC fast chargers;
• In March, Ford recalled some F-150 Lightning pickups because of a potential problem with short-circuiting batteries that could ignite; and
• A month earlier, Mercedes-Benz told owners of the EQB crossover to limit charging to 80% of battery capacity to prevent a fire until repairs could be made.

Despite such recalls – and some high-profile headlines involving Tesla battery fires – safety experts point to federal data showing that there are fewer fires involving EVs than with gas and diesel models, based on the number of vehicles on the road and the number of miles traveled.