2021-22 Mustang Mach-E owners sue Ford in federal court over safety

Three owners of the 2021-22 Mustang Mach-E have filed a federal lawsuit against Ford Motor Co., claiming the Dearborn automaker has known of a design flaw in its popular electric vehicles that causes them to lose power while driving down the road — and has not figured out how to fix the problem.

"Companies go through recalls all the time," lawyer Aashish Desai of the Desai Law Firm in Costa Mesa, California, told the Free Press.

"But when you have damages that affect a safety issue and the company doesn't appear to have a solution, then you get into a problem that nobody wants to drive around a car that may stop working while they're driving," he said. "I'm shocked they still have these cars out on the road."

Ford spokeswoman Cathie Hargett told the Free Press on Monday the company does not comment on active litigation.

The lawsuit, filed July 1 in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California, raises questions about "a uniformly designed defective high voltage battery main contactor that could overheat, thereby immobilizing the vehicle or making it lose power during operation. The contactors on these vehicles are prone to fail during ordinary and foreseeable driving situations."

The lawsuit says, "Ford has actual knowledge that, because of the way in which the battery contactors were designed and integrated into the Defective Vehicles, the contactor switch could suddenly fail during normal operation, cutting off engine power and certain electrical systems in the cars, which in turn, disables key vehicle components, safety features or other vehicle functions, leaving occupants vulnerable to crashes, serious injuries, and death."

Ford has said it is unaware of any injuries or deaths related to the problem.

The lawsuit represents owners and lessees of vehicles built between May 2020 and May 2022, specifically:

The lawsuit says these customers were informed of the recall but their Ford dealers have yet to correct the problem and "it is not clear" Ford has a "true solution to the battery/overheating issue."

The lawsuit notes that Ford should have disclosed to the plaintiffs and its other customers the defects at the time of purchase or lease over the past two years, because they may have reconsidered buying the product or paying as much as they did.

"Ford was provided notice of these issues and defects by numerous complaints filed against it, as well as its own internal knowledge derived from testing and internal expert analysis," the lawsuit says.

"Ford's conduct and deceptive omission were intended to induce" customers "to believe the defective vehicles were safe, adequately designed, and adequately manufactured," the lawsuit says.

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A 2022 Mach-E starts at about $44,000.

The lawsuit asks Ford to explain how an over-the-air software update fixes a hardware mechanical failure with the connectors.

"That doesn't make sense to me," Desai told the Free Press. "I'm afraid there's something else going on here. Does Ford have the connectors? Can they not get them? Are they too expensive? Why were smaller ones put in? Why did they make this mistake?"

Ford spokesman Said Deep told the Free Press on Monday, "The software update is meant to protect the contactors. If any customers experience this issue, the hardware replacement is covered under warranty."

This situation is not like a broken taillight or rubber falling off a doorjamb, Desai said. "Those are things that happen all the time with recalls. We're talking about 50,000 cars that can just turn off unexpectedly. At that point, it's time for a lawsuit."

Ford has not advised consumers to stop driving the vehicle.

Between July 13, 2021, and May 31, 2022, Ford reported to federal regulators the company saw 286 customer warranty claims filed in North America related to an open or welded contactor. Ford wrote that it was not aware of any reports of accident or injury related to this condition.

Then, in June, the automaker issued a recall affecting 48,924 or 100% of the 2021-22 Mach-E vehicles built during a two-year time period that could lose power while driving or not start. The action also included a dealer hold on any vehicles not yet delivered to customers.

Ford filed documents with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identifying the problem as related to a battery part overheating. Deep told the Free Press at the time that the company planned to do an over-the-air update as soon as this month.

Such action is similar to over-the-air technology updates done on mobile phones now.

Ford wrote in its documents to federal regulators:

"Direct Current (“DC”) fast charging and 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 remains open or a contactor that welds closed.

"The recalled Secondary On-Board Diagnostic Control Module and the Battery Energy Control Module software were introduced into production on 05/27/2020 and was taken out of production on 05/24/2022."

These tens of thousands of vehicles do not operate as advertised, the lawsuit says.

"If Ford is simply cutting power through the 'over the air' software update, recharge times will be much slower and acceleration times will be longer," the lawsuit says.

Customers suing want their vehicles fully repaired, their economic value restored and damages to compensate them for the diminished value as a result of the defect and Ford's "wrongful conduct" related to the defect, the lawsuit says.

The firm is seeking to have the case certified as a class action, estimating the total value at $5 million for customers, not including interest or fees. Desai said a number of additional Mach-E owners have contacted him since the filing.

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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard:[email protected] her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.