- A Ford Mustang Mach-E owner had to break a window to free his child when the locks refused to open
- The locks are electronic, and there’s no slot for a key
- Overriding the locks requires removing panels and jump-starting the 12-volt battery
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: a child is trapped in a car, and no way to open the doors. That’s what happened recently to a California couple when the locks on their Ford Mustang Mach-E stopped working with their infant son inside. The car’s owner, who identified himself as “malcolmgordon_vo” on Threads, and as “r/MacheE” on reddit, said his wife parked their 2021 Mach-E at a public charger early in January. The battery had 25% remaining and she planned to plug it in.
According to the report on Threads, “When she got out of the car to go grab our infant son, the car became completely disabled. Nothing worked! The car locked and neither the key or either of our phones could unlock it.” He said this happened in the San Fernando Valley, and the temperature was 80°F (27°C) — and as temperatures rise even higher in a vehicle, it doesn’t take long for children to potentially suffer heat stroke, brain damage, or even die of the heat.
“Malcolm” said he called both AAA and Ford’s roadside assistance, but neither service was able to open the doors, and ultimately, he broke the window to rescue his son. He added that, “Once inside, nothing worked either. The start button did nothing.”
The Mach-E doesn’t have conventional door handles; instead, it uses a system that Ford calls “eLatch.” You push a button on the door and, providing you have the fob or a connected phone, the door pops open a bit. From there, you pull a small grip-handle on the front doors, or use an inner grip pad on the rear ones, and pull the door open.
But while the Mach-E is all-electric, it isn’t the big traction battery that feeds power to the eLatch. Instead, it’s the car’s 12-volt battery — yes, the same type that’s in gasoline cars, and that every EV has (and which will eventually require replacement just as a gas vehicle’s battery does). The 12-volt battery’s functions include initially starting up the EV system’s modules and computers, as well as running some of the peripherals — in this case, those eLatch buttons.
There is a failsafe, but unlike most vehicles that give you a slot to insert a physical key if the fob doesn’t work, the Mach-E’s is far more complicated. For one thing, you’ll need jumper cables, and either another vehicle’s battery or a portable battery pack (which, with any luck, belongs to a bystander and isn’t yours and is now stuck in the car).
First you remove a small panel on the front of the car, exposing electrical terminals. You jump those with the cables to pop open the front trunk, or “frunk.” Once you’re inside, you remove more panels to access the 12-volt battery’s terminals, and then you jump-start that, just as you do when your gasoline vehicle’s battery refuses to start. After all that, the 12-volt battery should provide enough juice to pop the locks, but “Malcolm” said that even though the Ford roadside assistant followed all those steps, the doors still wouldn’t open and the Mach-E wouldn’t start.
The car was towed to the dealership where it was purchased, and where the owner said he’d bought an extended warranty. He was hoping Ford would pay for the broken window under the circumstances, but was told that “no warranty or program would cover the car and the failure was due to the 12V battery,” he wrote. He also said that, “The car gave us no indication of the battery failing ahead of time and my wife had just pulled the car over from driving for an extended period right before this happened.”
Although the dealership originally turned down his claim, “Malcolm” got in touch with higher-ups at the automaker, who told him Ford will cover all of the expenses related to the issue, along with the cost of his rental vehicle.
He also pointed out, and we’d say he’s right, that, “This is an extremely dangerous oversight.” He added that even if he’d known to access the frunk and then jump the battery – it is in the owner’s manual, but unfortunately not everyone reads those – he still needed another battery to do so, or he’d have to wait for a roadside technician. Last we heard, he’d reported the issue to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); and he’s also considering trading in the Mach-E for a vehicle with actual door handles.
One tip we have for all parents, regardless of the vehicle you’re driving: When you get out, leave your open just a bit until you know you can open the child’s door. While it’s rare, it is possible for locks or handles to fail, and you don’t want children – or pets – left inside.
This “open the frunk and jump the battery” goes above and beyond, as far as we’re concerned, but it’s certainly not the only time we’ve heard about problems with finicky electronic locks.
Last year, Volkswagen had to recall 20,602 copies of its ID.4 in Canada, when water could get into the handle and damage the circuit board inside, allowing the door to pop open. Lexus had to tweak the design of its door handles on some older NX and RX models because water would freeze on the button and render it useless. And the pop-out handles found on many EVs even made our list of “least-favourite new-car features of 2024.” Sometimes, a simple handle with a back-up physical lock works just fine.
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