Faulty Door Locks Could Lead To Fallout
When it comes to recalls of cars sold in America, Ford, Stellantis, and Tesla led the way in 2024 with the most. This year, Ford may retake the title. It recently issued a single recall for almost 1.1 million vehicles, and now there’s a new one that affects 197,432 Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers in America and another 120,000-odd from other markets. According to The Detroit News, these EVs may lock themselves with no workaround, which could trap people inside the car or prevent them from entering it.
Self-Locking Happens In Certain Scenarios
According to the recall documents filed with the NHTSA, the problem occurs when the vehicle has a low 12-volt battery, and then “the electronic door latches may remain locked once the driver or front passenger exits and shuts the door.” If a child is left in the car when this happens, they may be unable to take advantage of the inner door release handles. Worse still, the car may still not unlock when the 12-V battery is jumped. One Mustang Mach-E Forum user reported that his infant was locked in the car for 40 minutes because of this same sort of problem. While Ford works on a remedy, it has issued a stop-sale recall, so there are likely still affected units at dealers.
A Simple Fix, But A Long Wait
Autoblog
Thankfully, the fault lies in the vehicle’s software, so this won’t require a physical fix at the dealer. Ford will update the affected 2021-2025 EVs’ powertrain control module and secondary on-board diagnostic control module C software at no cost, and owners should expect notification letters to be mailed on June 23. Once Ford has figured out exactly what to do, it will send a second letter, but unfortunately, the automaker only expects the fix to be ready on September 29.
On the surface, software seems like something that shouldn’t only go wrong when the car reaches users, but test engineers don’t usually test new cars with old or weak 12V batteries. Ford’s general quality problems will take years to fix, but the automaker is making efforts, and hopefully, it will fall a little further on the recall leaderboard when 2025 comes to a close.