- A Mustang Mach-E owner claims his son was trapped inside the EV when the doors wouldn’t open.
- When AAA couldn’t open the doors by jumping the battery the owner smashed a window to get in.
- The Mach-E doesn’t have conventional door handles or an emergency key slot visible on the outside.
Technology is great when it works, but when it fails the results don’t only leave us frustrated. Sometimes tech breakdowns can induce sheer terror, as one Ford Mustang Mach-E owner discovered when a battery failure left his child trapped inside the EV.
In a post on Reddit, user @r3d_ra1n explained how all seemed well when his wife parked the 2021 Mach-E up with the battery showing a 25 percent charge. She exited the EV and closed her door before moving around to the other side of the Mustang to open another door to get her infant son, which is when the panic set in.
Related: Ford’s Electric Mustang Mach-E Outsold The Gas Mustang For The First Time Ever
The Mach-E doesn’t have conventional door handles, just a touch-sensitive switch on the pillar, and on this occasion, neither the owner’s wife’s keyfob nor the Ford app on phones belonging to the wife or the poster would unlock and open the door. Not ideal when a helpless baby is inside and it’s a toasty 80 degrees (27 C) outside.
AAA was alerted but failed to open the car by applying a jump pack to the 12-volt battery in the frunk, which was unlocked via the emergency access door below the headlight. Ford Roadside Assistance was also called out, but before that second crew arrived – which was 90 minutes after the baby first became trapped – the owner had taken matters into his own hands and smashed a window to gain access.
With the window busted the owner was able to open the door using the internal emergency release. That manual release is intended to prevent occupants getting trapped inside but it’s obviously no good if the occupant is a lone baby, so it’s worrying that Ford didn’t think to fit an emergency key slot on the outside of the car, as most other automakers do. The 2021 Mach-E came with the same key fob as other Fords and included a physical emergency key hidden inside, but the blank is uncut because there’s no lock.
In a first update to his Reddit post the owner says the car was towed to a dealer, who noted various failure codes but put the problem down to a faulty 12-volt battery, which is a consumable item and therefore not covered by the car’s warranty. But having then gained a ton of attention on social media he says was contacted by Ford HQ who told him they were working on his case.
H/t to Road & Track