Ford safety statistics span recall activity, independent crash testing, driver-assistance trials, regulatory enforcement, and workplace outcomes. The measures below distinguish Ford-reported figures from IIHS, NHTSA, and EPA observations, while keeping each population, market, and period explicit.
Key Ford Safety Statistics
The most useful headline figures are:
- In 2023, Ford reported 109 global safety recalls across its corporate reporting population.
- In 2022, Ford reported 114 global safety recalls worldwide.
- In 2023, Ford reported 54 U.S. safety recalls.
- In 2022, Ford reported 72 U.S. safety recalls.
- In 2021, Ford reported 53 U.S. safety recalls.
- In 2023, 7.8 million global passenger vehicles were recalled according to Ford’s report.
- In 2022, 11.2 million global passenger vehicles were recalled according to Ford’s report.
- In the United States during 2023, 6.9 million Ford passenger vehicles were recalled according to Ford’s report.
- In the United States during 2022, 8.7 million Ford passenger vehicles were recalled according to Ford’s report.
- For the 2024 model year, Pre-Collision Assist with Automatic Emergency Braking was standard on 98% of Ford and Lincoln cars, light-duty trucks, and SUVs.
- For the 2023 model year, 10 Ford and Lincoln nameplates received five-star overall U.S. NCAP ratings.
- In the 2023 IIHS test program, the Mustang Mach-E avoided vehicle-to-vehicle collisions at both 12 mph and 25 mph.
- In the 2023 IIHS pedestrian tests, the Mustang Mach-E avoided crossing-child collisions at both 12 mph and 25 mph.
- In the 2023 IIHS daytime adult-pedestrian test at 37 mph, the Mustang Mach-E reduced impact speed by 35 mph.
- In 2023, Ford reported one employee fatality globally.
- In 2023, Ford’s global Lost-Time Case Rate was 0.40.
Contents
- Global and U.S. Ford recall trends
- Ford safety ratings by market
- Ford driver-assistance and crash-prevention data
- Ford crash-test injury and intrusion measurements
- Ford recall completion and enforcement outcomes
- Ford employee health and workplace safety
Global and U.S. Ford Recall Trends
Ford’s 2024 Integrated Report separates the number of safety recall actions from the number of passenger vehicles included in those actions. Those are different measures: a recall count is not a count of unique owners, and the vehicle totals describe recall population rather than necessarily distinct vehicles.
| Period and geography | Safety recalls | Passenger vehicles recalled |
|---|---|---|
| Global, 2021 | — | 5.4 million |
| United States, 2021 | 53 | — |
| Global, 2022 | 114 | 11.2 million |
| United States, 2022 | 72 | 8.7 million |
| Global, 2023 | 109 | 7.8 million |
| United States, 2023 | 54 | 6.9 million |
Source: Ford 2024 Integrated Report. The report is Ford corporate reporting, and the passenger-vehicle figures are recall populations rather than unique owners.
The reported global recall-action count moved from 114 in 2022 to 109 in 2023, while the reported global passenger-vehicle recall population moved from 11.2 million to 7.8 million. In the United States, Ford reported 72 actions and 8.7 million recalled passenger vehicles in 2022, followed by 54 actions and 6.9 million vehicles in 2023.
Ford also reported 5.4 million U.S. passenger-vehicle recalls in 2021, alongside 53 U.S. safety recalls. These counts should be read as reported actions and affected products, not as a direct real-world crash or injury rate.
For the 2024 model year, Ford reported that Pre-Collision Assist with Automatic Emergency Braking was standard on 98% of Ford and Lincoln cars, light-duty trucks, and SUVs. Standard-equipment availability indicates adoption in the vehicle lineup; it does not demonstrate a measured reduction in crashes.
Ford Safety Ratings by Market
Ford’s 2024 Integrated Report gave model-year 2023 nameplate counts for five-star overall NCAP ratings across several markets. NCAP programs and rating validity can differ by market, and nameplates can have different test coverage.
| Market | 2023 model-year Ford and Lincoln nameplates with five-star overall NCAP ratings |
|---|---|
| United States | 10 |
| Europe | 7 |
| China | 7 |
| International Markets Group | 5 |
Source: Ford 2024 Integrated Report. These are Ford-reported nameplate counts, not a single globally comparable rating.
In the United States, Ford and Lincoln had 10 five-star overall NCAP nameplates for model year 2023. Europe and China each had seven, while Ford’s International Markets Group had five.
Independent IIHS recognition adds a separate U.S. benchmark. The 2024–25 Ford F-150 crew cab and 2024–25 F-150 extended cab earned IIHS Top Safety Pick awards for vehicles built after September 2024, so the build-date restriction matters when interpreting those awards.
Source: IIHS 2024 Top Safety Picks — Ford. Awards are not equivalent to a fleet-wide real-world injury rate.
Ford Driver-Assistance and Crash-Prevention Data
The 2023 Mustang Mach-E results come from controlled IIHS trials. They show how the tested system performed under specified speeds, lighting, and target conditions, rather than measuring the vehicle’s real-world crash rate.
- In the IIHS 12-mph vehicle-to-vehicle test, the 2023 Mustang Mach-E avoided the collision.
- In the IIHS 25-mph vehicle-to-vehicle test, the 2023 Mustang Mach-E also avoided the collision.
- In IIHS pedestrian testing, the Mach-E avoided a crossing-child collision at 12 mph.
- At 25 mph in the crossing-child test, the Mach-E again avoided the collision.
Source: IIHS 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E.
The adult-pedestrian trials measured impact-speed reduction rather than simple avoidance:
| IIHS test condition | Result for the 2023 Mustang Mach-E |
|---|---|
| Daytime, parallel adult, 37 mph | 35 mph impact-speed reduction; warning 1.7 seconds before impact |
| Nighttime, parallel adult, 37 mph, high beams | 33 mph reduction; warning 1.6 seconds before impact |
| Nighttime, parallel adult, 37 mph, low beams | 16 mph reduction; warning 1.0 second before impact |
Source: IIHS 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E. These are controlled test outcomes, and the lighting condition is part of each result.
The spread between the nighttime lighting conditions is important: the reported reduction was 33 mph with high beams and 16 mph with low beams. Those figures should not be converted into a general claim about pedestrian-crash reduction outside the test setup.
Ford Crash-Test Injury and Intrusion Measurements
The 2023 F-150 IIHS measurements describe specific crew-cab configurations, crash tests, and dummies. They are not measurements for every F-150 variant or predictions of injury outcomes for every occupant.
| Test and side | Maximum intrusion | Other reported measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Small overlap, driver side | 7 cm lower hinge-pillar intrusion | 22 mm chest compression; maximum Nij 0.17 |
| Small overlap, passenger side | 14 cm lower hinge-pillar intrusion | 15 mm chest compression; maximum Nij 0.20 |
Source: IIHS 2023 Ford F-150. These are controlled crash-test and dummy measurements.
The driver-side small-overlap test also recorded 168 g left-foot acceleration. In the original moderate-overlap test, the driver dummy recorded 213 HIC-15 and a 20 Nm extension bending moment.
The updated moderate-overlap test recorded 312 HIC-15 for the driver dummy and 21 mm maximum driver chest compression. The updated rear-passenger test recorded 3.1 kN neck tension, a 64 chest index, and 6.7 kN shoulder-belt tension.
The updated side testing reported driver torso maximum deflection of 14 mm in one test and 15 mm in the paired test. The source identifies those measurements as test-specific results from IIHS tests VTS2305 and CES2308.
Ford Recall Completion and Enforcement Outcomes
A NHTSA quarterly report for a Ford unexpected-downshift recall provides a more detailed view of product status over time. The recall covered 552,188 products in the United States across the report period from 2024-3 through 2025-2.
| Status | By 2024-3 | By 2025-2 |
|---|---|---|
| Products remedied | 180,823 | 256,790 |
| Products unreachable | 18,990 | 17,620 |
| Products removed | 3 | — |
Source: NHTSA Recall Quarterly Report 24V444. “Remedied” follows the NHTSA quarterly-report definition and can include remedied, inspected without remedy, or returned to inventory; unreachable means owner notification could not be delivered.
The same report recorded 3 products removed by 2024-3, defined in the supplied report context as scrapped, stolen, or exported. The figures track products, not owners, and the status categories should not be treated as a consumer completion percentage without the report’s full denominator treatment.
Regulatory enforcement provides another outcome measure. NHTSA’s 2024 Ford consent order totaled $165 million, including $65 million upfront, $55 million deferred, and $45 million for performance obligations.
Source: NHTSA Issues $165 Million Civil Penalty, Second Largest in Agency’s History. The consent order is an enforcement outcome, not a measure of crash frequency.
Ford Employee Health and Workplace Safety Statistics
Ford reported one employee fatality globally in 2023. The same corporate reporting context separately states a zero-fatality target, so the observed result and the target are distinct measures.
Ford also reported a global Lost-Time Case Rate of 0.40 in 2023. This is a company-defined workplace rate for Ford’s global workforce, not a public-road crash rate and not directly interchangeable with vehicle crash-test or recall measures.
The EPA provides related automotive context, but not a direct crash-safety outcome. For the 2024 model year, EPA estimated Ford’s U.S. new-vehicle real-world fuel economy at 23.4 mpg, compared with 27.2 mpg for average new vehicles.
Source: EPA Highlights of the Automotive Trends Report. These fuel-economy figures are estimates about vehicle use and environmental performance, included here as context rather than as Ford safety statistics.