Just had the same with my 2022 hybrid. Charged it on the Sunday. Off charge same day but next morning completely dead. AA couldn’t start and said something interrupting comms. Had to drag the car off driveway. Took dealer 9 days to come and tell me flat 12V battery and not a warranty issue. Guess from reading by here it’s going to be an ongoing problem 😞

On 3/13/2023 at 8:33 PM, sue Heard said:

My 72 reg Kuga Vignale FHEV is also having battery issues. 3 times flat. Back to Ford dealership on 1 March and they have done system updates and replaced 12v battery. Told last Friday the battery is still draining so advised to remove Ford pass. Done that and it’s still draining. They don’t seem to have a clue what’s wrong. Really annoying. Only done a couple of thousand miles 

I have been having the same problem.  Currently Fords Waltham cross have my vehicle. Updates on system done. . Ford app still reporting battery drain. 
They won’t replace battery unless head office has advised. 
 

My battery died without warning and I needed a neighbor's car to start it. Ford tells me that I have to change the 12v battery and this is the 3rd time in 3 years that the battery dies without warning. Ford Kuga is a good car to drive but this is not acceptable!

Hi guys, i have been having the same issue, and i think my dealer here in Norway finally found a fix for it. I had the car for 1 month now after the fix, and its not giving me any message about sleep mode anymore, and the car havent died since then. When you guys go to the dealer, ask them to change the 12V battery, because after its going dead mulitple times, its never gonna be the same. The main fix is a sensor that works with the engine and the dynomo. It tells them when the battery needs to be chrages while driving and not. And make them update all the moduls.

Hope this helps

On 6/1/2023 at 8:12 AM, duretti said:

this is the 3rd time in 3 years that the battery dies without warning.

You can't blame the battery for that. It sent you a letter a week before saying it was feeling poorly, but due to post office strikes it arrived too late. 🤣

 

 

I've had the flat 12V battery several times, I asked them at the service a couple of months ago to take a look and they "couldn't" find anything.

Took the car in on Monday for it's 1st MOT, and wrote very detailed notes on what was happening:

Charge HV battery up, unplug the car. Either the next day, or 2 or three days later, various things weren't working as expected. The touch central locking only worked on the drivers door and not all doors, the tailgate would unlock but not actually open (very annoying). Essentially, unnecessary subsystems are shut down as the 12V battery discharges. 

Measuring the 12V battery indicated it was 4Volts a couple of times (car totally dead), and latterly around 9.5V (I got to it before it went completely flat) where the car would open and not much more.

Oh yes, and once it's been at 4V, when you jump start the car, every subsystem indicates a failure on the dashboard demanding a service call (and the Ford app mirrors the service call demand). I discovered you could clear all of this by popping the bonnet, and pulling up and reseating the two very large connectors located right next to the Positive Battery repeater terminal - all faults would clear and the car could be charged up and run normally (until the next surprise battery flattening).

Ford MOT'd the car and told me they'd taken the 12V battery off, charged and tested it (all okay apparently) and applied two patches, one of which was to address the 12V battery drain problem.

Interestingly they left a document in the car with the following wording which i hadn't seen before:

Customer Recommendations (please inform customer)

• Ford recommends unplugging the vehicle when charging is complete.
• If it is not possible to disable smart features on the wall box the Ford recommends to use the domestic charging cable (provided with the vehicle).
• Avoid using remote start if the vehicle is plugged into the wall box.
• If possible, configure smart charge functions on the wall box to OFF.
• If you are using scheduled charging, use the Ford pass application.
• Ford recommends only charging when the battery is depleted. So rather than automatically plugging it in when the State of Charge (SoC) of the battery is at 80%, wait until charge level is down to 10 or 20%.
• If the State of Charge (SoC) of the battery is already 95%, there is no need to push to get to the max. charge every day.

Hope this helps if it's happened to you. While hugely frustrating when it happens, I am prepared to get it going within a couple of minutes and overall it is a really practical vehicle.

On 4/26/2023 at 4:39 PM, Wunie said:

Got my Kuga PHEV Oct 2021.  Two urgent recalls. One being, panoramic roof possibility of detaching, though apparently temporarily repaired, is still waiting for a permanent fix. This recall was January. Now the 12v battery drain which started for the first time April 3rd Locked out of the car. RAC been out twice. Yesterday afternoon battery charged to full capacity by RAC & my recently purchased (for this problem) expensive battery charger. Turned engine off & on as previous comments suggest, today same thing.....yet another battery drain & I've not even used the car since charging the 12v battery. I'm not impressed & will never buy another Ford.

Think this problem is going to happen again. The app has just told me in it's deep sleep mode.  This happened last time.  Getting fed up with Ford Kugas

As an update to my last post, the battery drain issue returned once again.

I took it back to the dealer and to be fair to them they persisted and the technician working on the car said the 12v battery had passed all tests previously but failed this time so they replaced the 12v battery under warranty.

Since then, I went on holiday for 2 weeks and the car didn’t go into deep sleep mode (which it always did) and didn’t shut down any subsystem like the other door locks (which it had been doing) so fingers crossed, the software updates and the 12v battery replacement seem to have sorted a persistently annoying problem.

Got my ford kuga phev st line x first edition  2020 at the end of july. The car has 20k miles on the clock. After 6 weeks I had the same problem  as all the other posts on here from the dead 12v battery, the thumping under the bonnet as well as the windscreen heater only clearing part of the screen ( which is being replaced this week). My local Tc Harrison Ford have remembused  me for the price of the new battery and are replacing the windscreen for free. Surely Ford have to admit the car is fundamentally flawed. If the vat tery goes flat again it'll be goodbye to the car and I'll be going back to A plain deisel.

Yesterdays my 72 plate kuga hybrid did the same thing, was driving, had the orange spanner come up on the dash then just died while driving. RAC came out and said it was due to the acid 12v battery draining and needed a AFM battery. Currently with Ford who have called and said it’s not just the battery but an issue with the fuse within the battery port that’s the problem and this needs to be ordered and there is a backlog so won’t be getting the car back anytime soon! Had the car just over 1 year and only done 3000 miles 

I've had similar problems with my 20 plate Kuga PHEV. In March 2022 the 12V battery died without warning. The dealership ended up having the car until July 2022 still couldn't fix the battery drain, the car went to a different dealership at the suggestion of Ford UK. The other dealership supposedly fixed it by replacing the 12V battery and the intrusion sensor and I got the car back in September 2022. In the intervening time I attempted to reject the car back to the dealership I purchased the car from, this was rejected by the dealership Compliance team on the grounds that it had been repaired. At the time I said how do I know it is fixed and that the problem won't come back e.g., when the 12V is knackered by the constant draining. I applied to the Motor Ombudsman to look at my case for rejection, eventually months and months later they denied my rejection request on the grounds that the car had been repaired by the original dealership, which was not true. I appealed my case and in January 2023 and I've heard nothing detailed since except that it is in the queue.

I had been getting the "System off to save battery. Please turn ignition off or start the engine" message. On the 16th October 2023 I checked the 12V battery just before I charged the main drive battery, it measured about 14.9V so was fine. After the main drive battery was charged I disconnected the charge cable i.e., it wasn't left on charge overnight. The next morning the car was dead, 12V battery measured 3.8V. So I'm back in conversation with the original dealership and Ford UK. 

I'm not holding my breath for a positive resolution to this.

Yes same problem here. Drained battery and had issues with camera and radio not working from the beginning when I purchased my hybrid plug 2022 kuga. The battery went totally dead last week and I had to get car recovered to garage. They did all their tests and told me it was the battery  but didn’t replace the battery because that wasn’t the problem apparently 🙄🙄plugged it in, reset it and plugged it back out and gave it back.
First day out the boot refused to open and then warning ‘system off to save battery’. We were in and out of the car as it was raining but nothing was plugged in so I’m worried I’m going to be stranded again. Not ideal when you pay all this money for a new car and you are afraid to bring it on a long journey incase it won’t start. Surely Ford realise this car is not fit for purpose and by replacing battery the problem is not resolved by reading a lot of these message. 

I also have a Kuga ST line plug in, 2020  I went to move the car this evening and all the warning lights are flashing in a consecutive manner and the steering lock is on and I cant start the car, also my ford pass app will not communicate with the car, this is the first time this as happened, was it your battery that was faulty in the end and as has the problem now been  solved?

I bought a 2022 used Hybrid Kuga from a mainline Ford dealership in late October this year, the battery has gone flat twice in the last 6 weeks whilst topping up the Hybid battery. The dealership can't seem to fix the problem and i am now losing confidence in the car.  Ford should be resolving this problem ,which from this forum seems widespread. Im at a loss at what to do next and am contemplating cutting my losses and trading in the car.

12 minutes ago, JOHM DILLON said:

. Im at a loss at what to do next and am contemplating cutting my losses and trading in the car.

Very probably the best option.

The problem has been going on a long time now and Ford don't have an answer, and probably don't care. There are those who claim to have found a work around but not sure that it works in every case.

A lot of people on the English and American forums say changing the  12 volt battery to an AGM and registering it in the software/module can make a big difference.

Main dealers should know of this. Somebody said AGMs are now fitted from new, I don’t know if this is the case.

I have a 2021 August  registered Kuga PHEV and last week after driving back to Devon for Oxford i plugged in the charge cable locked the car, At about 9.30 that evening i went out to unplug the charge cable before i wen to bed and once outside i could hear what sounded like someone beating a drum, I tried to unlock the car with the button on the key fob but nothing happened, i walked around to the drivers side and to my surprise the drumbeats were coming for the rear of my car on the drivers side at about 1 second intervals. I called ford assist who said they would have someone with me within the hour however i was worried as to what was happening as i had loaded my car for shooting the next day and there were several 12 bore cartridges in the car. The drum beats then started to slow down and finally stopped before the breakdown man arrived and i then managed to open the car on the key and removed all the contents as i was worried there was a fire risk. The breakdown man arrived and checked the 12 volt battery and it was a bout 5 volts, he then charged the battery and the car started ok and has been ok since then. I booked the car to go to my ford garage to see if any thing was obviously wrong but have since cancelled the appointment as i have been told they will charge me by the hour to investigate if they cant find a fault. Any comments would be welcome. Jim

On 12/16/2023 at 1:44 PM, unofix said:

The problem has been going on a long time now and Ford don't have an answer, and probably don't care. There are those who claim to have found a work around but not sure that it works in every case.

 

The drum beats emanate from the audio subwoofer in the RH rear quarter panel.

It occurs when the 12v battery voltage falls to a low value and you have to use the manual key blade to get in.

 

1 hour ago, RL123 said:

The drum beats emanate from the audio subwoofer in the RH rear quarter panel.

It occurs when the 12v battery voltage falls to a low value and you have to use the manual key blade to get in.

 

thanks that makes sense

Been having issues with my Kuga PHEV being dead as a Dodo! Having been on the forum I can see that there are numerous Ford owners having exactly the same issue. My Kuga has been back to the dealership 3 times for the 12 volt battery problem. Had software updates applied, battery charged etc. Went to use car yesterday after charging overnight; dead as the preverbial again. Will be contacting Ford customer care first thing on Monday and returning car to dealership for a forth time. 
 

COME ON FORD WHAT IS GOING ON?

Same depleted 12v battery fault.  I purchased Kuga end of September, happened in Dec and then again this week.  Car collected now and was shown service bulletin on the problem, but it was dated 24th March, so they must’ve tried this fix in December, so dosen’t give me much confidence.

I am not mechanically minded, but thinking of ways to avoid the long wait for breakdown service, would one of the battery jump start machines (£100ish at Halfords) get the car started ?  

Have read quite a few posts on this subject , especially in the American escape forum.

A number do carry the emergency jump start battery packs.

First thing is to confirm all the software updates have been done.

A thing a number of people have done is upgraded the 12volt battery to a type 48 AGM which has a larger capacity and will fit in place of the smaller one. 
should be a lot of reading if you do search

I was shown latest updates so I can only assume they were added.

If the fault continues, the battery upgrade is something I will investigate.  

Sad state of affairs, but at the moment, I’m going to reduce my use of plugging into charger, as I believe this is where the fault is coming from.

Thanks

I have just join this topic as I wanted to see if this was a common issue with Kugas. We one a 22 plate Kuga and since the recall for software update in July 23 we have started getting battery drain since the colder nights have came in.

Today the car would recognise either keys and would not unlock or release it from overnight charge. I used the key to physically unlock the drivers side to see if I could start the car. It came up with no key detected, limited function, service required and then place the hazards on the vehicle. 

This will be our 3rd RAC call out to get the car to the garage. Each time they are giving the same answer, no fault found but has had a software update. There is clearly a fault but and so they have not fixed anything just fobbing us off. The last time it happen (a couple of weeks ago) asked if the drain could be related to the battery being smaller than the normal size other cars have as we leave the dash cam on standby when on our driveway. They then said they would not test that theory as it's not a part of their policy. I was later inform by Ford customer care that they believe it is being caused by the dash cam but have never tested this. I challenged this as they haven't tested it and that millions of cars have dash cams. They said they are happy to test but would charge me £180 for the test.

Ford clearly has a design fault. They are in denial that it is this, because it has been over engineered and they have reduced the side of the battery, therefore more susceptible to going flat.