NHTSA Complaint #11681148 — 2023 NISSAN ARIYA

I had just left the [XXX] on the [XXX] when our Ariya suddenly lost power at highway speeds. It felt like a very dangerous situation, because there are very long distances between exits in this area, and the shoulder is somewhat narrow in spots. The high voltage battery had been DC fast charged to 95% at said service area minutes earlier. But the display suddenly went to 0%, turtle mode appeared, and the message “Warning Service EV System” showed on the display. For some reason, the windshield wipers also activated momentarily, despite it being a clear summer day. It was not possible to maintain speed, as the car had a power limit of about 10%. I was fortunate that we were able to limp the ~10 miles to the next exit behind a very slow RV. However, the car slowed down dramatically when going uphill. It was a very white knuckle experience. Once we made it off [XXX], I was able to slowly coast into a gas station parking lot and collect myself. I tried turning off the car and turning it back on, but the message did not go away. Since I also carry tools when traveling, I then tried disconnecting the 12 volt battery for a minute and reconnecting it. Fortunately, that made the error go away. Having a suspicion that the 12 volt battery could be at fault, I replaced the OEM flooded lead acid battery with an AGM battery at my own expensive. The next day, I took the vehicle to Poughkeepsie Nissan in Wappingers Falls, NY to be looked at. The write up is included with the submission. The dealer was not able to duplicate the issue, but they did see error codes stored within the car’s computers. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)