NHTSA Complaint #11673409 — 2023 CHRYSLER PACIFICA

This is a PHEV and upon returning to my vehicle after being plugged into a Rivian public EV charge station I found that the charger handle overheated and smoking. When I left the vehicle 45 minutes earlier it was charging with no issues whatsoever. When I removed that handle, a large piece of the charge terminal came out of the handle a remained attached to my charge port. It was one of the connecting sleeves that melted out of the charger and somehow arc welded itself to the male end of my charge port. I still cannot remove it and so now I am unable to charge my vehicle. I notified the property officials and also notified Rivian, but neither is claiming any responsibility to the damage to my charge port. I took my car my local Chrysler dealer and explained what happened but they denied any fault as well. My vehicle has less than 13k miles and still covered by new car warranty so I thought they might know why that happened. In my judgment what had happened is the charge cable itself had a weak wire or a bad, loose connection to the copper terminal inside the handle that caused high resistance and heat to build, then broke away and bound itself to my charge port once I removed the charge handle. When I try to followup with Rivian, best I can do is communicate with their front line phone customer service (they never allow me to speak with anyone authorized to make decisions about the matter), however Rivian did fix their public charger after the incident, but they're seem uninterested in assisting a fix to my vehicle, which I feel they are at fault So have claimed Chrysler had had charge port issues but they are denying assistance. I have an estimate of around $980.00 to repair my charge port, but neither Rivian nor Chrysler warranty are willing to make repair. I feel victim here, used equipment as advertised but being denied product liability claims by both parties, Rivian and Chrysler.