Ford Motor issues recall notice for 125,000 vehicles that could catch fire

Ford Motor has issued a recall notice for over 1,25,000 Escape SUVs, Maverick pickups, and Lincoln Corsair luxury SUVs because their engines could leak fluids and catch fire.

All the vehicles being recalled are hybrid or plug-in hybrid versions, plus all three models share similar engineering, reports CNN.

In a filing with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Ford stated that due to a manufacturing problem, the 2.5-litre gasoline engines can leak engine oil or gasoline vapour that can catch fire when they come into contact with hot parts in the engine compartment.

As the vehicles are hybrids with electric motors as well as petrol engines, someone could continue driving even after the engine fails, worsening the situation, it added.

The recall applies to Escapes from 2020 to 2023, Mavericks from 2022 to 2023, and Corsairs from 2021 to 2023, the report mentioned.

Last year, the majority of these vehicles were recalled due to the same problem.

In March, Ford issued a recall notice for 18 electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks with faulty battery cells that caused at least one truck to catch fire.

On February 4, a fire broke out in a holding lot during a pre-delivery quality check while the vehicle was charging. Ford halted production and issued a stop-shipment order to dealers.

According to Ford, the "root cause" of the problem was at the Georgia plant of South Korean battery supplier SK On.

--IANS

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