Troubled Battery, Ford Recall 20,000 Hybrid SUV Units In The US

Ford Escape plug-in hybrid. (Doc. Ford Motor Company)

JAKARTA - Bad news is returning to Ford in early 2025. The largest automotive manufacturer in the United States (US) has opened a recall step involving a number of hybrid SUVs.

Reporting from Reuters, Thursday, January 2, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced the withdrawal of 20,484 units involving Ford Escape and the premium Lincoln Corsair model for the 2020 to 2024 model.

It is stated that the problem stems from production defects in high-voltage batteries, which have the opportunity to cause an internal short circuit.

"Production painting on one or more high-voltage battery cells can result in an internal short circuit and battery failure," NHTSA said.

According to the car safety regulator, the local dealer will update the battery energy control module software and replace the high-voltage battery pack, if needed, for free.

Previously at the end of 2024, Ford was one of the many automotive brands that carried out the most recall programs. The brand nicknamed Blue Oval pocketed 4,370,701 recall programs in Uncle Sam's country.

However, this number is less than other automotive companies such as Tesla which collected 5,135,697 units and Stellantis up to 4,722,452 units throughout 2024.

One of its biggest recall programs last year was 765,000 units because some vehicles still use an unsafe Takata airbag. Of these, around 374,300 units of them are cars located in the US.

This recall involved a number of passenger cars, such as Fusion, Mercury Milan, Lincoln MKX, and Lincoln Zephyr, all of which were produced 2006-2012. Then, another affected model is Edge 2007-2010.

Not only passenger vehicles, the manufacturer's sports car nicknamed Blue Oval' such as GT output 2005-2006 and Mustang 2005-2014 were also affected by the problem.

It is known that this Takata airbag inflator can explode, causing sharp metal shards that can fly so that it can injure both passenger and driver vehicle users.