Posted on 01/20/2022 7:04:12 AM PST by Red Badger
Unfortunate and very costly damage to a Ford Mustang Mach-E battery from a tow truck was recently reported on the MachEforum.com.
While it's just an example case, it's worth noting so that we all can avoid similar problems. Electric cars are still new and relatively rare, which means that there are plenty of inexperienced technicians.
In this story, a Mach-E driver on the route from Canada to Florida was forced to stop the car due to a "Pull over Safely" error message and lack of power. Through Ford Road Side Assistance, a tow truck was dispatched to take the car to the nearest Ford dealer.
Unfortunately - according to the info - improper service resulted in damage to the battery pack - specifically, the battery rail. There could also be other issues, as the owner wrote: "Seems the batteries are leaking," which suggests a damaged cooling system. The forum post does not explain what caused the original "Pull over Safely" error message.
According to the owner, the car was hooked up wrongly. See some additional images here. The result is a $28,000 bill that no one wants to take responsibility for:
"On the recommendation of Ford Customer Care, they arranged to have the car transported down to a dealership in Florida. The tow company hooked into the battery rail and damaged the batteries. $28,000 repair bill."
The manual points out how to tow the car and how to lift the car up. There are special areas strengthened specifically for the purpose.
In the case of lifting the car up, if the lift isn't positioned correctly, it could come into contact with the battery guardrail, and then the battery might be damaged.
It's actually similar to most conventional cars, although, in the case of EVs, the battery pack is the single most expensive part, which means that it's important to double-check whether technicians know what they are doing.
It’ll buff out.
“hooked up wrongly.”
Me fail English? Unpossible!”
You could buy a lot of gas for $28,000.
Even at today’s prices.
This is cut and dry, the tow truck driver is at fault. You just can’t hook the chains to ANYTHING under the car.
With the insurance company’s money.
Failed bigly!..........................
I’m assuming a battery replacement is $28000? Want to kill electric car sales, publicize that.
Sounds about right
I own a Mach e. This driver made 2 errors.
One was not pulling up the manual on the car’s screen to show the tow truck driver the very specific towing instructions.
The second was taking an EV on that long of a trip. It’s a freaking commuter car, not a long haul vehicle.
Correction:
The “Technician” is at fault.
/s
smh
Some people did some things...
Won’t be any used car market.
It’s worse than that:
Tesla is so proud of its batteries that it advertises “15k charge cycles” & “half million-mile life”, having recently modified its warranty from ‘unlimited’ to 120,000 miles.
Yeah.
It’s expensive and sometimes dangerous to be on the cutting edge of technology.
Ask an astronaut.
I really like the “no one is responsible” thing.
A couple weeks ago when it got below zero near me I saw someone with an electric car who must have had a frozen battery. In a normal car, that’s not too big a deal, you just need a jump start and then once the car is running for a half hour or so you are fine.
Well, for the electric car this was a big problem. Whatever roadside service he called had to send out a car with a giant battery pack taking up the whole rear of the car to charge him up on the street, and I imagine he was probably sitting there for at least a couple of hours. Now I think I understand why nobody drives fully electric cars in my neck of the woods.
If by chance it’s an impound the towing company most likely will not be liable.
I still think that wind up cars would have been the better option but the evirowackoes demanded that cars run on electricity.
found
on
roadside
dead...
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