You know how new innovations sometimes seem fine until a flaw exposes that maybe we should have just stuck with the old ways? This is one of those times. Ford has recalled its popular Mustang Mach-E because, if the 12-volt battery in this popular electric crossover dies, occupants might not be able to re-open the front doors after getting out.
The interior door handles on the Mach-E are mechanical; pull them all the way back, and you’ll feel a cable being tugged to release the door latches. The exterior “handles,” though, are electric. In fact, they’re buttons.
The issue, according to Ford, is software-related. As the automaker stated in a communique to owners, the Mach-E’s front door locks may “retain their last lock/unlock status” if the 12-volt battery goes flat, which can make regaining access to a vehicle with a dead battery tricky if you’ve already exited and closed the door.
While NHTSA hasn’t posted the full defect report yet (although it has been assigned recall number 25V404), here’s the full description of the problem from Ford’s recall notice to owners:
On your vehicle, in the event of unexpected 12V battery discharge, the front door electronic latches retain their last lock/unlock status. If the driver or front passenger exit the front doors using the mechanical inside release handles, the doors may remain locked when they are closed. This may result in an unexpected lock-out condition for the driver and front passenger without the ability to immediately re-enter the vehicle.
So basically, if the 12-volt battery dies, the door doesn’t unlock itself automatically once you open it. And so you can easily lock yourself out, which is a problem, especially if there’s a baby in the back (for example).
Due to the failure mode of the Mach-E’s locks, it seems that Ford’s software has created a lockout scenario, at least for the front doors. Since there are no door lock cylinders and the approved method of gaining entry is to hook up 12 volts to a point behind an access panel in the front bumper, some Mach-E owners say they have ended up breaking windows to free people stuck in their cars, such as this Reddit user who wrote that “AAA and Ford roadside assistance both came to try to unlock it, but I ultimately had to break the window to get our son out of the car.”
The user stated that “I had to open the door using the inside latch after breaking the window, but once opened, the door did not close.” This unlatched position should be the default for all doors if a mechanical door release is pulled with no 12-volt power to the car, but as the recall states, a software issue can prevent the front doors from entering that state. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported due to this door lock problem, although it’s astounding that it took five model years to track down.
Yes, this issue affects 196,911 2021-2025 Mach-Es in America and another 120,000 or so beyond the 50 states, so Ford’s issued a recall and pulled the Mach-E from sale until it’s sorted. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like a simple over-the-air update, as a technician will need to flash the updated software through the diagnostic port.
It’s worth noting that, to a degree, this door lock issue could’ve been mitigated with something Ford’s Lincoln luxury division has been doing on cars with electronic door latches for years: Including a key hole in the driver’s door. The Continental had it, the Nautilus has it, the list goes on. That way, even if the locks malfunction for whatever reason, owners can still unlock at least one door of their vehicles without having a source of 12-volt electricity on their persons if they need to get a passenger out who can’t open the rear doors on their own, like a child strapped in a car seat.
Mustang Mach-E owners looking for a fix could be waiting a while, too. Ford’s stated that instructions for a fix won’t be rolling out until the third quarter. Until then, if you own a Mach-E, maybe buy one of those cheap portable jump starters and keep it in your bag that you carry around, just in case. If an external source of electricity is the only way to get in if the battery’s dead, a little jump-starter is a whole lot cheaper than smashing out a window.
Top graphic image: Ford
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Simple fix would be to allow a battery charger, even a simple handheld one, to provide enough charge via the charging port to get the doors open.
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You know, as long as the door to the charging dock is not also electronic…
I mean, I have one in my car to help others with dead ICE car batteries
Model S owner here. Don’t get me started on weird door handles! The gee-whiz factor gets old the first time you have to fix or replace them at an eye watering cost. I would love for a manual old-fashioned mechanical door handle option. Like another commentor said its an answer to a question no one asked.
Speaking as an Estimator for a Tesla-centric bodyshop, I fully endorse your frustration.
Also, frameless windows that break themselves if they go out of calibration.
How can software and electronics fix anything when their power supply is dead?
Sounds like leaving out the mechanical fallback was a dumb idea.
They can mitigate it in a couple ways. Mostly by doing a better job of making sure the 12V battery is always topped off using the traction battery, and possibly by warning about a dying 12V sooner before it becomes a problem.
No mechanical fallback is still really dumb, though.
Interestingly the 12v battery seems to be the bane of many EVs. HMG has also had issues with the 12v battery, but at least there’s a purely mechanical door key. My suspicion is that in a ICE a failing battery will first fail to crank the car, giving warning before total failure. In an EV there’s no such high draw need, so once the battery fails it takes out everything else with minimal warning, if any. Also the 12v battery may be getting somewhat under-spec’d, since it doesn’t have to support cranking the engine over.
That’s the majority of it. PHEVs have the same sort of problem, since they use the traction battery to start the ICE motor. Charging patterns/strategy can make it more of an issue on some cars than others, too.
Sadly someone IRL proved my point. Electric door handles suck
I have no idea why these had to become a trend. Is it REALLY that hard to open the damn door? Is this something that the buying public is struggling with on a regular basis? Does this feature really sell more cars?
I hate that the simple act of getting into a modern car is now jeopardized by useless “features” that don’t serve any purpose beyond some sort of gimmick factor.
All cars should have a mechanical cylinder lock in the door and include a physical key. Yes, I’m sure it costs the manufacturer another $34 to do it, but it’s not like they’re passing on any savings to the consumer for removing that function.
I had to puzzle over my Volvo S90 for a bit before I realized that if you have a dead battery and keep a set of jumper cables or a battery booster pack in the trunk, you will not be able to get it. Yes, there is a mechanical key to get into the car. However, the trunk has no means to open with a dead battery. Worse still, to get into the trunk by folding the rear seats down, you need power because when you lift the latch to fold the seat down, that is a powered actuator instead of just a mechanical release. WTF?! So you can get into the car, you can get the hood up to expose the battery posts (battery is also in trunk), but unless you have someone else with cables/booster pack, you’re still stuck. I bought the smallest battery jump box I could find and it permanently lives in the glove box, taking up 80% of it.
I’m 100% with you on manufacturers unnecessarily reinventing the wheel. My 2 cars are a 2007 and a 2012, not that new. Even so they have enough annoying features that they don’t need. Things that have broken on them: the rear electrically actuated hatch handle(trapping my things in the trunk), the push button start, and the push button e-brake. All things my cars don’t really need and definitely haven’t made my life easier.
That NBA Finals commercial is gonna hit a bit different now, lol.
Ford QA hasn’t exactly been hitting homeruns for years now, this just adds to the list.
Although I agree this is a case of things being too smart for their own good, I mean when you open the door the door should stay unlocked until you lock it or put it in drive or something. But this could be an issue on any vehicle with electric locks and no mechanical cylinder.
Both our 8 year old Bolt and 3 month old Prologue have the mechanical option, hidden key in the fob, covered lock cylinder at the driver’s door.
Also the 11 year old Cadillac ELR with the door poppers had a mechanical lock hidden in the license plate section of the trunk, with a wire door popper in the trunk.
This is not that hard.
Mach-E owner here: In 3 years of ownership, I’ve never had the issue described in the recall, though there was a time where the 12V battery had a low state of charge and the car was sluggish to unlock, but eventually did. Ford released an OTA update that ensures the 12v charger (fed by the main battery pack) more reliably keeps the 12V battery charged, and the issue has never come back.
I see Ford release a lot of recalls, but most are resolved automatically with OTA updates, and I’ve never seen a symptom of any of them. I’m just glad they’re continuously improving.
I agree a simple door handle is more reliable, but I will say compared other complicated door mechanisms (looking at you Tesla), the Ford door button poppers are probably the least offensive. The little actuators also mean my young kids can easily open the doors themselves, while the mechanical door locks on our other car are too heavy for them. Not a huge selling point, but it has its perks. I do wish it had a redundant mechanical key unlock somewhere though.
Umm – never had an issue as a child opening a mechanical car door. I’m talking ’70s and ’80s domestics here.
Cool. I’m sure you remember back to being 4 years old and opening car doors?
I’m saying from experience here that my kids have struggled to swing open the doors on our other car, but the automatic poppers on the Mach-E are easy for them.
I think the Mach-E (and Tesla) doors are incredibly stupid. But my youngest is 5 and she still struggles with the car door. It’s bigger than she is. I can see a parent appreciating the convenience.
Electric door latch releases, answering questions no one asked… I think this whole narrative of things like electric door releases, pita capacitive controls, giant screens for everything is not helping EV adoption. Sometimes people just want stuff that works, not all markets need features galore. Don’t get me started on lit grille logos (cough Mercedes).
Exactly – where is the physical key that you insert into the physical lock that allows you to lock and unlock the car as much as you want with no power whatsoever? This electric lock crap is just bad design. And btw, all 12V barriers eventually die.
Using your phone as a key is honestly a game changer though. I didn’t expect to love that as much as I do, but it’s become one of my favorite features of my Mach-E.
I agree it should have a mechanical backup though.
Haven’t used it once on my Escape PHEV, don’t really need to as the door unlocks when you put your hand on the handle. The one FordPass feature that I would like to use (having the cabin pre heated or cooled) has worked exactly one time in the the 6 months I’ve owned the car.
That’s not relevant to “phone as a key” though. I’m saying I never bother carrying the car fob around and just use my phone as the proximity key. Just like the fob, I can leave my phone in my pocket and the car automatically locks when I walk away, and unlocks when I get near the driver’s door.
It’s just really nice not to have to carry the chonky fob around.
Not sure what to tell you about pre-conditioning. It’s always worked for me, but the Mach-E has a more advanced Sync system than the Escape.
Having a phone remote fob or telematics, yeah all good. I do use mine on occasion with one of our cars that has it, tho I really think a mechanical backup is a good idea.
I was on a bike ride few springs ago and key came out and ended up in a puddle, key stopped opening doors but slid the key out of the fob and opened the door (Honda Ridgeline so that has no telematics). Had to hold right up to start button to start, and had error missing fob till I replaced the fob at dealer. That said it worked and got me where I had to go even when damaged.
Lit up grill logos are pretty sweet, actually.
It kept me from buying a modern BEV for a long while. On paper a Fiat 500e makes more sense for my use case, but because it has those stupid electric external door handles I went with a 2025 Nissan Leaf S. I’ve yet to have anyone sit in any of the passenger seats, but because Fiat had to make it with electric door handles that eliminated it from my new car search.
Automakers should focus on making good cars that happen to be electric, like the e-Golf.
I get that electric door handles are stupid but would this not be an issue with any vehicle that has electric door handles once the 12v is dead?
Most vehicles with electric door handles have a mechanical failsafe hidden somewhere. It seems Ford forgot to add one.
what’s wrong with door handles
Nothing, nothing at all. Go back to sleep sweet child.
My Tesla Model 3 is the same way…if the 12V battery goes dead while the doors are locked, I don’t think I can unlock or open the door. The solution is to hook up a 12V source to a plug that’s behind a removable panel in the front bumper (looks like a tow hook cover), and then you can open the frunk with the app and get to the 12V battery and replace it / hook up a jumper to it. Then, the doors can be unlocked. Isn’t that the same for the Mach-E? Or, should Tesla be recalling all of it’s cars for the same reason?
The Mach-E has a similar 12V jumper panel behind the bumper according to the article. Still kind of a pain since you need a jump instead of just a mechanical key to get in or out, which (as the article points out) may require breaking a window if there’s a kid or pet in there on a warm day.
Overall, I think the similarity’s more an indictment of Tesla’s design than a defense of Ford’s.
Knowing my luck, I’d drive one of these, lose the fob, and then the battery will die. This time, it would probably include running around an active runway at JFK at night, or something.
Happens to us all.
I drove my wife’s Lexus RZ the other day using the card (its the same size as three credit cards stacked on top of each other) not the physical key. It said low battery when I got in the car, so I held the card nearer the start button and all was good. When I got to work and got out the car I couldn’t lock the car, as the card was to far from the start button… Thankfully she could remotely lock it.
Finding a replacement battery (super thin CR2414) was a trip to a dealership and $15 – ouch.
Had I looked at the back of the keycard I’d have seen a tiny button to release a physical key stored in the card… I felt like a total dumbass.
In my defense, if you look at the card from the front where the Lexus logo is, there’s no indication of a key being accessible from the back, I’m amazed they got a key to fit in the card at all.
I am envisioning trying to time the 60-90 second takeoffs of heavies at JFK and the. ensuing jet blast blowing said key around and scrambling for it… OH crap Emirates A380 loaded up for DXB just blew the keys another 500ft… I think I just put this scenario in my memory banks for a randomly generated nightmare sometime…
Fix Or Recall Daily
“F*cking open, ridiculous doors!”
I get that the lack of handles is supposedly more aerodynamic (improves Cd by 0.000001%), but there’s no reason they couldn’t add a physical backup latch hidden in the hatch.
You can have flush handles that are entirely mechanical (Lotus Emira, to pick one of many at random).
So this electric handle fad is just bollocks.
I will say as far as electronics go, the Mach-E’s buttons are super easy to use. Sure, so are normal mechanical handles, no arguments there, but in the age of dumb door access mechanisms, the Mach-E’s implementation is one of the least offensive.
One perk of the popper is my young kids can easily open the door, despite not being strong enough to open the mechanical door mechanism on our other car.
I was actually going to comment that the factory full doors on my a Jeep TJ have flush handles, but then I also realized that the design of the linkage for them ages poorly. Should someone happen to try and open them when they are locked, say like a passenger not realizing the TJ never came with remote power doorlocks, there is a 50/50 chance the linkage will get stuck in limbo and prevent either unlocking or opening the door with the key or the inside latch. Still, they are (mostly, as they are inset on a slightly raised area) flush.
Solved by a Mustang branded ball peen hammer tucked behind the drivers side fender. “It’s an easter egg!”
“Smart _____”: a device that has been around for decades, and is redone with loads of software to make a marginal improvement in day to day usability and convenience, with the downside that if anything goes wrong, things go from a minor inconvenience to a full on disaster. See: Smart Phones, Smart Fobs, Smart Doors, etc.
Not to be confused with “Smart Ass”, which society generally agrees does not provide even marginal improvements in convenience, or really any improvements for that matter over a common donkey. See: myself.
For 100 years mechanical door handles were entirely adequate for cars, but now we have to add electronic bullshit to everything, for reasons. Yeah.
I’ll take Problems That Should Never be Possible for $200
Why do we keep trying to reinvent the wheel?
“Surprise and delight” features sell cars.
Things that seem cool in the showroom are more important than things that seem bloody obvious in the dark and the rain when your stupid car is broken.
Laughs in Grand Cherokee 4XE, where a dead 12v battery means you can’t shut the vehicle off.
Unlike Tesla, which won’t let you out of the vehicle when you get into a crash:
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/tesla-cybertruck-lawsuit-driver-burned-bones-disintegrated-b2771728.html
Given the choice – I think I’d take the Ford.
My wife has backed into her own car a few times, I bet she could do it. 🙂 (might want to consider “reenter” or “back in”)
I really like the Mach-e overall, and am hoping to pick up a used one in a few years. It’s too bad Ford seems to have followed Tesla down the unfortunate primrose path of these electronic door systems with no mechanical linkage. I can’t imagine the aero savings are worth all the potential failure points
A very important distinction between Ford and Tesla though is that all four interior door latches in the Mach-E are mechanical. Tesla uses frameless windows that must lower slightly to not drag on the seals, so the car will yell at you if you use the mechanical release in the front seats, and the rear seats don’t have a mechanical release at all.
The Ford has no such issue as all windows are framed, and the default door latch is mechanical.
In 3 years of ownership, I’ve never had the issue described in the recall, though there was a time where the 12V battery had a low state of charge and the car was sluggish to unlock, but eventually did. Ford released an OTA update that ensures the 12v charger (fed by the main battery pack) more reliably keeps the 12V battery charged, and the issue has never come back.
The newer Tesla Model Y and Model 3 have mechanical releases for the rear doors…
Thanks you’ve just saved my a google search.
They have great lease deals right now on a Model Y $1k down $399 plus taxes etc.
It’s worth looking it up though, they’re in the door pocket under a tab, not the most intuitive placement in case of emergency
oh, so it’s not like a regular door handle…
No sadly, but there are kits to make them more accessible in case of emergency, I highly recommend one of those.
Good to know. I’d still prefer old school exterior handles like we have on our Lightning, but at least all four releases are mechanical. Thanks! Glad to hear you like your Mach-e, I’ve been really happy with our Ford EV
Lack of mechanical backup strikes again!