Issue fixed, hybrid vans resuming production

North America’s first hybrid minivan will start rolling down FCA’s assembly line in Windsor again after the company halted production amid safety concerns, sources tell the Windsor Star.

On June 9, Fiat Chrysler voluntarily recalled the nearly 1,700 Pacifica hybrids it had sold in Canada and the United States.

Customers reported the vehicles would unexpectedly lose power and stop dead in their tracks. The company said it had pinpointed a problem with “certain diodes.”

“This may cause propulsion loss,” FCA said in its recall statement.

While the company publicized the recall, it has kept the halt in production under wraps.

“We don’t discuss/confirm production-schedule specifics,” Lou Ann Gosselin, head of communications for FCA Canada, responded by email Monday when asked to comment on a Wall Street Journal story about the production freeze.

Workers in the Windsor Assembly Plant said the hybrid versions of the Pacifica stopped appearing on the line weeks ago.

Rumours swirled that there were “transmission issues” with the electric minivan.

Dino Chiodo, president of Unifor Local 444, contacted Monday in Italy where he is meeting with FCA leadership, said he was aware the company had “put a delay on production.” He said he believed the hybrid production was supposed to resume this week, but could not confirm it had happened.

“I don’t know the specifics,” he said, vowing to call the plant Tuesday to get more information.

Because the hybrid represents such a small portion of minivan sales, a halt in production has no effect on employment, Chiodo said.

At the time of the recall, the company had sold just 309 plugin Pacificas in Canada.

The hybrid Pacifica is the Chrysler flagship leading the company on its maiden voyage into electric territory. Waymo, the Google subsidiary experimenting with selfdriving vehicles, has announced it will use a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica hybrids in testing in Phoenix, Ariz.