Owners of the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid and Lincoln Corsair PHEV (both of which will soon be retired) from the 2022-2024 model years have bad news. Their vehicles are facing a recall from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to an issue with the high-voltage battery that could cause a loss of drive power and, in the worst-case scenarios, a fire. Tens of thousands of crossovers are affected, and, to make matters worse, the Blue Oval is still figuring out how to resolve the issue on the 2.5-liter PHEV powertrains. In the meantime, Ford has determined that only driving the vehicle in a certain mode may prevent disaster.
What Went Wrong With Escape And Corsair PHEVs
Ford
According to the recall report submitted to the NHTSA, the vehicles’ high-voltage battery cells may experience internal short circuiting, but the root cause of the condition “has not been fully determined to date.” What we do know, based on an earlier recall (24V954) for the same problem, is that the high-voltage battery pack cell’s separator layer between its cathode and anode may be susceptible to damage “as a result of variability in the battery cell supplier’s production process.”
Related: 5 Changes Ford’s Making to Correct Recalls Costing It Billions
The earlier recall saw Ford updating the Battery Energy Control Module software that was intended to detect anomalies in the cell, providing some forewarning of a potential short circuit. This would give the driver a notification and cause battery charging to be stopped to reduce the risk of a short circuit, but this remedy was ineffective, as new information suggests the update may not detect the possibility of a short circuit in all cases. Hence, the new recall.
What Owners Should Do To Minimize Risk
Lincoln
As noted above, the root cause of this problem is still unknown, so it’s unknown when Ford will be able to provide a remedy to owners, but in the meantime, owners will be notified of the issue by mail and told to avoid fully charging the battery through the infotainment system. Along with the charge limit, customers will be told to only use “Auto EV” mode. But if these measures are not enough and there is a short circuit while driving, the car will shut down and a red “Stop Safely Now” message will be displayed on the instrument cluster. Earlier this year, some of the same vehicles were recalled for a fire risk associated with the internal combustion engines. With Ford issuing a record number of recalls this year, its reliability reputation is falling apart further, but be patient – CEO Jim Farley knows the company’s quality control issues will take years to resolve.
