Ask the expert: Our car could have caught fire. Can we claim compensation?

Telegraph

3 days ago

Dear Alex,
Our small family company bought two Ford Kuga plug-in hybrids (PHEV) in early 2024, because we wanted to be eco-friendly and intended to use the cars mostly in electric-only mode. In March this year we received a recall notice advising us to stop charging our cars due to a potential battery fault which could result in fire. Ford said it doesn't have a fix and doesn't know when it will have one. We now use the cars only in petrol mode, making them far less efficient than an ordinary petrol Kuga. I complained but was only offered a £100 goodwill payment for each car. Do you know when a fix will be released? Should we push for more compensation?
– AS
Dear AS,
I know it's no consolation, but you're not the only one to have been affected by this fault. I've received several letters concerning Ford's recall notice 24S79, which affects Kuga plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models built from 2020 to 2024, a total of 26,328 vehicles in the UK.
The recall notice states: 'In the event of a high-voltage battery internal short circuit, you will experience a 'Stop Safely Now' message in the instrument cluster. You may also experience a loss of motive power, increasing the risk of an accident.
'You will continue to have 12-volt accessories, steering and braking control. You may also experience battery thermal venting potentially resulting in a vehicle fire.
'Ford engineers are developing new software to remedy the potential condition. In the meantime please DO NOT PLUG IN YOUR VEHICLES TO CHARGE THE HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY and use the drive mode 'Auto EV' only. This will prevent the potential issue from occurring while charging or driving.'
The letter goes on to say that you'll be booked in at your local dealer as soon as Ford has a fix (although, as you say, there is no indication of when that might be).
While credit should be given to Ford for identifying and taking action to remedy this potentially very serious fault, the lack of a potential end date had many owners worried – not only about the fire risk, but about the increased cost of use of their cars in the meantime. As you rightly point out, using a PHEV without charging it can result in much higher fuel consumption than even the equivalent pure petrol model.
There is some good news, however. I asked Ford if it could provide an update and it said the fix is ready to be rolled out; as of 20 May, customers should have started to receive notifications to book in their cars, first via the FordPass app, then by post.
I also asked whether Ford had a policy regarding compensation for customers' increased fuel use, but it responded only that customers would 'need to contact our Customer Contact Centre who are ready to assist with any further questions'.
Ford has already offered you a gesture of goodwill, but I would encourage you to pursue additional compensation. I would strongly suggest working out the cost of the additional fuel you've had to use during that time, based on the mileage travelled, the proportion of those miles that would have been covered under electric power and the fuel economy the car has achieved in that time.
While I appreciate the sums aren't easy to do retrospectively, submitting a claim for a specific figure is more likely to yield a result than a nebulous request for an unspecified amount.