Ford Kuga Battery Fires.

[SJ_Okay]

I would be lying if I said this doesn’t concern me a little.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/...kuga-phev-deliveries-halted-due-battery-fires

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[ChasingCoral]

I would be lying if I said this doesn’t concern me a little.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/...kuga-phev-deliveries-halted-due-battery-fires

Definitely not a good sign but glad they caught it early.

 

[MattG]

I admit I’m a bit nervous getting a very early production run of an entirely new and high power EV platform! I’m sure they’ve done a great job of designing and testing this, but I’ll nevertheless be careful how/when/where I charge it for the first few months at least.

 

[SnBGC]

Is the Kuga battery pack is liquid cooled like the Escape PHEV?

 

[Newbie]

Scary. This EV stuff is not easy. Co workers always say "just slap a battery in any car for an EV". Does not work that way. The software that manages all the battery systems has to be spot on.

 

[Newbie]

Sounds like owners have to park the car and wait a month for a fix. Sounds like it can catch fire just sitting! Where would you park it?

Quote:

Ford is writing to customers to book vehicles in for remedial work from later this month once the required parts are available.


"It's not yet known how difficult the problem will be to resolve, with unverified suggestions claiming it's related to the battery's charging module overheating. Ford admits that this overheating can occur "when the vehicle is parked and unattended or is charged".

 

[SJ_Okay]

To be honest, an EV battery fire is the biggest and probably only fear I harbour when it comes to owning an EV... this news has compounded that fear ?

I also take no comfort in the claims from Tesla that EVs are less likely to combust based off their data, since they’re calculating fires per billion miles driven or whatever... most EVs appear to be catching fire parked! How does calculating miles driven make any sense?

Does anyone think this could have something to do with LG Chem? I noticed they also power the Hyundai Kona which recently had some issues too.

 

[JCHLi]

Samsung had issues with one of their phone batteries catching fire, got banned from all airlines. To my knowledge this hasn't been an issue since with any other models.

Seems plausible that this issue is specific to this model or perhaps manufacturing of a specific lot.

At this point I'm not worried at all, but vehicles have quite a few recalls and reading them can be extremely scary.

 

[JCHLi]

On a side note, everyone talks about how far ahead Tesla is. They still have the lead in EV car fires but it sounds like Ford is catching up! ?

 

[EVer]

most EVs appear to be catching fire parked!

Do you have a source for that?

I admit too I am a bit squeamish about pouch batteries, however I suspect a fire in a car full of gas is more likely than in one without gas.

 

[SJ_Okay]

Do you have a source for that?

I don’t, I’m afraid... but I mention this is how it appears. At least to me anyway.

 

[SJ_Okay]

Good point... I have no idea. I was assuming. I am hoping it’s not the same battery as the MME... although it’s also likely that it’s not related to battery cells as @Mach-MI points out.

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