Ford Mustang Mach-E Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed

Back in June 2022, a recall was issued for the Ford Mustang Mach-E after it was discovered that the EV crossover was experiencing an issue that could cause certain examples to become immobile. At first, Ford didn’t have a fix for this issue, which is caused by a problem with high voltage battery connections, though it later came up with a workaround, and later, a proper fix. Regardless, a handful of Ford Mustang Mach-E owners filed a lawsuit just a few weeks later alleging that The Blue Oval knew about this potential design flaw and hadn’t yet figured out how to fix it. Now, over two years later, one of several class-action lawsuits pertaining to this issue has been dismissed.

In August 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into this particular problem, but wound up closing it that same December after Ford issued another recall instructing dealers to replace the Bussed Electrical Center, or High Voltage Battery Junction Box, as it found that fix to be satisfactory. Around the same time, Judge Linda V. Parker dismissed all but three of the claims levied against FoMoCo in the first lawsuit pertaining to this matter – Amber Sulligan v. Ford Motor Company, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Now, that same lawsuit has been completely dismissed, according to Car Complaints. The original plaintiff in the case – Amber Sulligan – claimed that she never had any issues with her 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E, but was “concerned” about driving it after learning about the recall. After that, “she returned it to the dealership and it has sat on their lot ever since, due to the Shutdown Defect,” according to the filing, which claimed that her vehicle couldn’t be fixed properly and she was seeking $5 million in compensation as a result. Ultimately, the lawsuit expanded to include nine plaintiffs.

Regardless, a judge sided with Ford’s assertion that the lawsuit was unnecessary since those vehicles had already been recalled, and that those repairs had been approved by the NHTSA. “By filing documents with NHTSA notifying it of a defect, [Ford] set into motion the great grinding gears of a statutorily mandated and administratively overseen national recall process,” the judge stated.