In April 2015, Fiat’s Vehicle Safety And Regulatory Compliance deportment began an investigation into certain 2013-2015 Fiat 500 battery electric vehicles after receiving warranty reports of loss of driving power. A review of the problem found that rapid operation of the cruise control speed adjustment switch or accelerator pedal application, while in cruise control, may set a diagnostic trouble code in the Elective Vehicle Control Unit (EVCU). This code will will force the vehicle into safe mode and automatically shift the vehicle into neutral. Once the fault code is set, a key cycle is required to allow the vehicle to shift out of neutral.

Chrysler will notify owners to return to their dealers who will reprogram the EVCU, free of charge. For more information about the problem, owners are asked to contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler’s number for this recall is R20 and the NHTSA campaign number is 15V-291.