Dodge Won't Let People Modify EVs Without Automaker Support

https://www.motor1.com/news/630468/dodge-ev-modifications-locked/

“No, I’m sure somebody will try and hack it, but that will be exclusive to Direct Connection and, quite frankly, that’s one of the reasons that we feel very strongly about what I call the ‘Crystals,'” Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis told Muscle Cars and Trucks in a recent interview. “The crystals are tied to the car, tied to the VIN, tied to the ECM of that car. It’s specific for that tune, for that car. Because we want to funnel this all through our control, and we want to funnel it through our Direct Connection and Power Broker program to support that body of people, to make sure that we’re controlling everything that happens in these cars.”

Yeah right! If it is found to be totally un hackable (not!) someone will just build a ECU to plug in place of the factory one that is, they really think they have guys that are smarter than every other electronics engineer on the entire planet?

Very true but it'll have to run and control the entire car in addition to unlocking all the features and will obviously obliterate the warranty. I am not even sure if anything like that exists for Teslas and they've been around for over 10 years

Probably because hot rodders don't really care for high performance vacuum cleaners.

They haven't needed to be hot rodded

I wonder how the language of the recently passed “Right to Repair” federal law touches on what Stellantis is proclaiming here?

As a civil trial about a commercial product the jury does not have to vote 12 to 0 but just 7 to 5

They're only hurting themselves. The same as dropping gas powered cars will push people wanting them to mother makes while they can still get them it'll be the same with this. If people are after ev's that they can modify themselves or don't want to be told by the manufacturer that they're being so controlling they'llbuy them from someone else.

This is why all auto MFG's are going electric...conform or get out of the business. From the NHTSA web site...
"The final rule establishes standards that would require an industry-wide fleet average of approximately 49 mpg for passenger cars and light trucks in model year 2026, by increasing fuel efficiency by 8% annually for model years 2024 and 2025, and 10% annually for model year 2026."

If it was up to the OEMs everything would be proprietary.

What better way to force people to use their overpriced dealer Service Departments and put the private repair shops and shadetree guys out of business.

Don't understand why some don't get why manufacturers have to say things like this? It's called legal LIABILITY and a "duty to warn". I've never seen someone get zapped or die by thousands of VOLTS putting an aftermarket camshaft in or a different supercharger pulley. I used to do technical bulletins for a motorcycle manufacture I worked for, (over 34 years) and in my early days first doing technical bulletins the company lawyer called me after reviewing one safety bulletin and said "Mike you left out that you could DIE if you don't follow the instructions in the bulletin". I said but that can't happen and he said "what's the worth thing that could happen in the most extreme case?" Yep the worst thing that could happen is you could DIE. So I had to put that in every safety related bulletin from there on out, even if I felt it was silly or stupid or could never happen if I didn't and someone did then big, big problems for me and the company and you guys have seen it in this world many, many times. You should see what we had to do to even sell an electric motorcycle and electric mini bike with legal and even EPA (huh?) yep emissions too. Dodge is just doing due diligence to Cover their @$$es and they don't care if someone thinks they are @$$es they WARNED YOU

Mike

that reminded me of an incident back in my machinist career.
a co-worker on day shift was cleaning around a 440 volt receptacle, and sprayed some cleaning fluid on the face plate.
the guys that witnessed this said there was a huge lightning bolt blasted out of the receptacle, and the guy was pushed backward quite a ways. luckily, he wasn't hurt.
it was treated as being quite funny afterward, but it could have just as easily had a very different outcome.

They will change their mind when nobody is buying any of their vehicles.
I see that as a last year of them being profitable.

My auto training was from the last century. The last thing I'm going to do is open anything on an EV and try to adjust anything. There are many out there that don't have the same thoughts as I do. I can see a few guys I know that would almost insist on opening up the "black box" to look inside and see what is there. These same guys would move some wires around inside that black box with a long screwdriver, thinking they would be protected from the voltage because their hand is "a long ways" from the power, just to see what might be under all those wires. These were the same guys you could zap with a 12 volt capacitor every day, and thy still couldn't grasp you could get such a shock from 12 volts. I suspect the voltage inside the EV black box is a lot higher then a 12 volt capacitor. Labels are there to protect the company from stupid people.

The warning label isn't going to bother those that understand the EV stuff and have the ability to modify it, and since when doesn't performance modifications void warranties? They may modify a vehicle warranty if the company people do the modifications, but I doubt it would carry the original warranty without a "limitation" clause.

I think the cars are just a more complicated version of a simple e-bike. You have a motor, battery and a controller (which is a box that is connected to the speedo/display and the throttle) and that's basically it. The thing people want access to in the cars is the ability to unlock the features they're trying to charge monthly subscriptions for or extra fee's.

Tesla has sent out over the air updates that unlocked drag mode and like 250 more HP. Its already in the car you purchased!

Dodge plans to sell you a car with 450hp but the tires and brakes to handle 600hp but you need to pay extra to access it.