On January 17, 2025, Ford Motor Company submitted recall 25S02 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for just over 270,000 Bronco SUVs and Maverick pickup trucks. According to reports, the recalled vehicles may have 12-volt batteries that could fail unexpectedly. Let's take a closer look at the information contained in the recall and what it means for Bronco and Maverick drivers.
Which Ford Vehicles Have the Potential Battery Defect?
Ford's notice says that a total of 272,817 units are subject to the recall. Reportedly affected by the issue are:
- 2021-2023 Ford Bronco Sport SUVs, and
- 2022-2023 Maverick pickup trucks.
Ford notes that so many vehicles are being recalled out of an abundance of caution, and conservatively estimates that 1% of them, meaning around 2,728, may actually have the problem.
What Exactly is Wrong with the Ford Batteries?
Ford's recall notice submitted to the NHTSA says that the affected vehicles have 12V batteries made by Camel Battery, a company operating out of China. According to the report,
The supplier’s cast-on strap (COS) process positioned battery plate lugs too close to strap walls. This leads to cracked COSs, open battery cells and ultimately battery failures.
The language is fairly straightforward, which isn't always the case with recalls, but in plainer language it says that a large production run of car batteries from Camel Battery were allegedly made incorrectly and could degrade to the point of failure.
What Harm Could the Ford Battery Defect Do?
As one might expect, vehicle battery failure means the vehicle loses most of its electric-powered systems, which is a lot more than just lights and radio. As corporations are always careful with their language, Ford's recall notice calls the potential effect of battery failure a "loss of motive power." Folks a little more in touch with reality would more likely call it a dead engine, and then—depending on the circumstances under which it died—panic.
Most modern drivers have never gone without power steering or brakes, and may not be ready to wrestle for control of a vehicle without either, especially if it's traveling at any kind of high speed and/or in traffic. If a Bronco or Maverick's battery dies suddenly and leaves the vehicle without power, the chances of that vehicle crashing skyrocket. Having said that, I should add that Ford said it had no record of any fires, accidents, or injuries related to the defect after the NHTSA received 19 complaints about it.
What Can Consumers with Affected Broncos or Mavericks Do?
The fix for this appears to be fairly simple, unlike many other recalls. Ford encourages owners of the recalled vehicles to take them to a local dealer as soon as possible. The dealer will inspect the battery and replace it with a Ford Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) battery if needed.
Why Should People Care about the Ford Recall?
People reading this may see Ford's estimate of under 3,000 defective vehicles, see that as just a fraction of a fraction of the millions of Broncos and Mavericks out there, and see this as not that big a deal. However, if the recall helps thousands of people avoid possible injury or death due to sudden battery failure, that's clearly far better than Ford never saying anything about the issue.
There's also the matter of manufacturers needing to admit when they made a serious mistake. Vehicles are dangerous enough when everything in them works properly, so if Ford doesn't avoid sending hundreds of thousands of them off the line with faulty parts (as it seemingly does over and over) then the least it can do is try to make things right as quickly as possible.
Again, Ford says they haven't heard of any damage done by the battery failures, and I hope that stays true. However, it may actually be a matter of crash victims just finally understanding why their Bronco or Maverick shut off just before their wreck. If so, then Ford Motors may owe those folks a lot more than a late warning.