Ford Motor Co. will pay a fine of up to $165 million to the U.S. government for moving too slowly on a recall and failing to provide accurate recall information.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday that the civil fine is the second largest in its 54-year history. Only the fine Takata paid for defective airbag inflators was higher.
The agency said Ford was too slow to recall vehicles with defective rearview cameras and failed to provide the agency with complete information, which is required by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
Ford agreed to a consent order with the agency, which includes a $65 million payment and $45 million in expenses to comply with the law. Another $55 million is deferred.
“Timely and accurate recalls are critical to keeping everyone safe on our roadways,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman. “If manufacturers fail to prioritize the safety of the American public and meet their obligations under federal law, NHTSA will hold them accountable.”
Under the order, an independent third party will oversee the automaker’s recall obligations for at least three years, and Ford must cooperate with the regulator.
Ford must also review all recalls from the past three years to ensure that enough vehicles have been recalled, and file new recalls as necessary.
The company must also review and change its decision-making process for recalls, and improve the way it analyzes data to find safety defects in its vehicles. It also needs to invest in technology so it can track parts using vehicle identification numbers.
Ford says it will invest the $45 million in advanced data analytics, a new document system and a new testing laboratory.
“We appreciate the opportunity to resolve this matter with NHTSA and remain committed to continually improving safety,” Ford said in a statement.
By law, an automaker must notify NHTSA by filing a defect report within five business days after discovering that a series of vehicles have a safety defect.
The problematic recall of more than 620,000 vehicles in the U.S., including more than 700,000 in North America, occurred in September 2020 for rearview cameras that can malfunction on several 2020 models, including the F-Series pickup, the best selling vehicle in the US.
In agency documents, NHTSA said Ford found warranty claims about the defective cameras from February to April 2020, and the matter was brought before a Ford committee in May of that year.
In July 2020, NHTSA contacted Ford about complaints it had received about defective cameras, and at a meeting with NHTSA in August 2020, Ford showed data for many 2020 models with high camera failure rates.
The company issued the recall on September 23, 2020, and about a year later, NHTSA began investigating whether the recall was implemented quickly enough and whether enough vehicles were affected.
In 2022 and 2024, Ford issued two more recalls for the same issue, adding approximately 24,000 vehicles to the first camera recall.
In the consent order, NHTSA said its investigation found that Ford violated multiple parts of the law by moving too slowly to recall vehicles with defective cameras, providing the agency with inaccurate or incomplete information and failing to submit required quarterly reports about additional recalls.
The order stated that Ford disagreed with his claims.
For years, high warranty and recall costs have hurt Ford’s profits, but the company says it is working to resolve the issues.
The punishment does not end the conflicts between Ford and NHTSA.
Earlier this year, the agency opened an investigation into a recall of a Ford SUV that failed to fix gasoline leaks that could have caused engine fires. Investigators wrote in an April 25 letter to Ford that they have “significant safety concerns” about a March 8 recall of nearly 43,000 Bronco Sport and Escape SUVs.
Ford said in documents that fuel injectors can burst, causing gas or vapor to leak near hot engine parts, potentially causing fire and injury. But the solution is to add a drain tube to direct the gas away from hot surfaces and software that shuts off the fuel supply if a leak is detected.
In the letter, the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation wrote that, based on its review of the recall, it “believes that the remedy program does not address the root cause of the problem and does not proactively call for the replacement of defective fuel injectors before their failure.”
Ford said it has a strong recall process and is committed to legal compliance, but can always improve. It said it has learned from the camera recall.
“We look forward to working with NHTSA and the independent third party to make further improvements,” Ford said.
