2020 FORD ESCAPE HYBRID Complaints

Began driving from a parked position slowly down a one way residential street, Stop Safely Now alert came on and the vehicle stopped in the middle of the street and would not restart. Was unable to shift to neutral to move from the blocked roadway, and had to have another motorist jump the 12v battery to get the ignition button to operate. Took the vehicle to auto zone to have battery tested and it showed starter and battery were fine. This is a significant safety issue as I have to drive the vehicle 240 miles home tomorrow via interstate highways and I'm terrified the problem will persist before I can get it home and to my local dealership.

My car, at the time was a moving vehicle at a NYC parkway intersection. malfunctioned. Dashboard, navigation radio went black. Navigation panel shows vehicle network communications error. car stopped moving.gear can shift. hazard light or hatch can turn one. Once dealer restarted the car, system generated notification listed powertrain to restraint control and four wheel drive failures. But phone still kept connecting to car on Bluetooth. This caused me to have to keep dialing back to 911, AAA, Ford roadside and dealer service because call receiver kept thinking the call was not connecting So they would disconnect the call. hill assist and pre-collision failure reporter in 3/21. Sync failure was reported to sync support and ignored. I was told CRM was down and call back later. Apple product and level 3 had update its software to address it. It is one thing an old car stalls. We have police, roadside and Good Samaritan to help a single woman to pull off the toad. It is abominable that safety features malfunction. It is even more horrid when the paid Ford roadside assist’s response at two calls was “call911” when I asked them to walk me through recovery protocol. When I called my dealer service (queens Ford 7 miles away from incident location), I was told to look for backup key slot, when I could not locate it at the described location, I asked for manual page number, I was told to call roadside or sales department to express my dissatisfaction) I found the manual page. The location identified does not provide a place to insert key. It took almost two hours before Ford contacted me about tow. If NHTSA does not look into this there is no justice. My 2020 escape was purchased in sept 2020 with extended warranty. It has only 9000 mi one it. Dealer offered a loaner. But kept me waiting because “it was too busy”. I refused to sign loaner gsreemtn, they threaten to report car stolen. Auto generated report still says car is healthy

On quite a few occasions, while braking down hill, it felt like I lost all brakes, despite pedal feel remaining steady. It literally felt like sliding on ice. Most recently, I recently experienced it on a hill where regenerative brakes would normally decelerate vehicle. It felt like the brakes gave out in the middle of the hill. Thankfully had no one in front of me so I was able to pump brakes and barely got vehicle to stop safely. Then waited a few minutes - the brakes resumed normal operation. Spoke with the dealer and they advised no knowledge of any such issue, and suggested I drop the car off so they could try to replicate the issue. Not eager to have my wife drive the car, as this could lead to a serious accident. Can clearly see from blogs and FB page on this vehicle that others have experienced the same - really thought I was alone on this.

When using the ac water drains down whirring harness down to floor near gas petal

On Dec. 27, 2019, I purchased a new 2020 Ford Escape from Walnut Creek Ford in California. 1.Within days I noticed that the car would, without warning, begin to shake violently when going down steep hills. I brought the car back to the dealer. but they couldn’t diagnose any problem. After the 4th return trip to the dealer, one of the technicians found a Ford repair bulletin that referenced the shaking issue. He fixed the car. 2.The 2nd problem was on July 9, 2021 about 1pm. I was traveling at 55mph on a freeway when the dashboard screens went totally black. There was no map, no speedometer, nothing at all on the screens. The directional signals wouldn’t work. The air conditioner went off with the temperature at 102 degrees. As I pulled into a parking lot, I realized the windows were all locked. I tried to turn off the engine with no results. The gear shift knob was frozen. My car has now been in the shop at Walnut Creek Ford for 41 days.

The Stop Safety Now light came on. Car stopped in a traffic lane. I attempted restart without success. I could also not get the transmission out of park while waiting for tow truck. I was then unable to restart the engine while the visual displays continued working. After about 20 minutes everything powered down and I was then able to restart. Very glad no traffic hit me.

In three occasions the automatic transmission has stopped working, operating under normal city driving conditions. Turning the car off and on again, it has worked properly. The car has less than 4000 miles. I took it to the Ford repair shop and there is a defect in the hybrid transmission, and it will take 4-6 weeks to be solved. Unbelievable such problems in a vehicle with such a few number of miles. Where is the quality control...

After a few days of driving on rainy days, one day at mornging, my car stopped working and I couldn't start it anymore. Various alerts about handbrake, brakes, “stopping the vehicle” and more were appearing. I called for assistance, and Ford send me a Truck crane. They couldn't put the unit in neutral so they could move it to the lift (first problem). When I took it to the Ford agency they checked it and after a week they accused me of putting my car in a big puddle. They told me that the hybrid battery connectors were wet. Why??? When he showed them to me, I realized that these orange connectors are positioned at the bottom of the vehicle, just 9 inches from the ground! I explained that I had not entered any deep puddle, but this water was due to normal driving on rainy days, which splashes in a normal way from the tires and the vehicles on the sides. I said, my car should be able to drive on rain, as the rain is something natural and normal. My car is in diagnostic in the Ford agency. They don’t want to pay warranty because they said rain is a natural phenomenon. This means that with puddle of water as small as 3 inches, water can get into these connectors, get wet, damage the hybrid battery, the unit and possibly cause an accident. If one day You encountered a slight 9-inch flood, it would be a sure breakdown! Ford should review why they put these connectors on the bottom of the unit, without protection against water, without a hermetic seal and with the risk of breaking down the system and the car completely. Sorry, I am from Mexico, but this car is sell and produced in USA and I consider important to check this big mistake in security and in the design of the unity.

After 2020 Ford Escape Titanium Hybrid did not start, it was towed to a Ford dealer. They diagnosed battery failure and put in a new one. When we drove away from the dealer, the car was disabled within one mile. They now say it wasn't the battery, it was the battery converter which I understand to be the equivalent to the alternator in non-hybrids. The vehicle is under new car warranty. My wife was fortunate she was in the right lane and could pull onto the shoulder with minimal steering control. Some alerts on Ford Plus app: "Powertrain Malfunction/Reduced Power." Also "Charge System Fault." And "Malfunction Indicator Lamp -- Regulatory."

Yesterday, July 25, 2021, I had a really unnerving experience driving my 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid. As I was about a half mile into my drive, a “Stop Safely Now” warning popped up, and the car slowed to about 15 MPH. I pulled over on the side of the road and the vehicle simply stopped. I couldn’t start it, and the engine and battery lights were red. The start button was flashing green. I sat there, with traffic passing by, unable to start the car or turn it off, as it appeared it was in accessory mode. I called Astoria Ford and talked to Greg, but it was Sunday, so no service available. I was fixing to have it towed and was prepared to wait an hour for the tow truck. After 20 minutes, a message popped up that said the car was going into a “System off to save battery mode…”. I was finally able to shut it off. A couple minutes later, I was able to restart the car, and drove immediately to the Astoria Ford dealership. The potential danger to this vehicle getting rear-ended seems great, and is a known issue with Ford now. Since I’ve owned the vehicle (a few months now), the car, when driving slowly down a hill and coming to a stop, will lurch and shudder, which leads me to believe that there could be some electrical and/or power train problems. It seems that there definitely should be a recall before something serious happens to those of us who own this vehicle.