Ford has issued a recall for about 35,000 Mach-E all-electric crossovers. Unfortunately, it’s not to remove the pony badges and stop calling the grocery getter a Mustang, but it’s almost as embarrassing. And the result is sales, which seem to already be waning along with other EVs, could take a hit.
Perhaps this is why Ford and other automakers have an EV loyalty problem.
If you recall, federal investigators have been looking into the Ford Mach-E for battery problems, even after the bloated ponies were recalled in 2022. Some owners had complained their EV had lost power completely while they were driving down the road, causing them to crash. The recall apparently didn’t fix the problem.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in an official filing that “repeated wide open pedal events can cause the high voltage battery main contactors to overheat. Overheating may lead to arcing and deformation of the electrical contact surfaces, which can result in a contactor that is prevented from closing or a contactor that welds closed.”
In other words, repeated hard acceleration in a vehicle Ford has promoted as a performance EV can cause a malfunction that results in loss of power while driving. NHTSA estimates 100% of the recalled Fords contain this defect, so we’d definitely recommend having your Mach-E fixed as soon as possible if it’s one of the recalled units. Until then, it’s probably best to not go crazy showing off all that instant full torque delivery.
The 2022 recall was for almost 49,000 Mach-Es, so this time around it’s not quite as large. But with the Ford EV experiencing these kinds of persistent problems, only a fool would believe it won’t suffer from image problems.
Considering increasing data shows EV demand is softening and loyalty is waning, this couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ford.