I have been following this discussion with great interest but have been holding off more posts. Mr. pedropomo60, I'm sure this has been highly stressfull for you and understandably so. I'm sure you are a good head of the family, and are deeply concerned with their welfare and safety. That is evident by your comments. Lets review the facts:

As I understand the situation, your daugter opens the door, exits the vehicle and when she reaches for the door to close it, with both feet planted on the ground she gets a shock which she finds particularly alarming.

If she is only making contact with one hand on the door and two feet on the ground, then this has to be static discharge. She is completing the circuit from the car (the container of the charge) and mother earth. The tires prevent this discharge from taking place because they are good insulators, even better if they have the low rolling resistance design described in previous posts. If she only contacts the car with one hand then the only way she could be getting hit with the Escapes high voltage would be if one of the high voltage cables was dragging the ground.

Suggestion: Go around and open the door for her. It will teach both of your children what good maners mean and set her expectations for how to be treated by polite company. If this static discharge is more likely to travel through the passenger door you will get an opportunity to experience it yourself.

Suggestion: If you manage to get shocked then add a ground strap as has been suggested by more than one of the posts. Gasoline tankers once used them to prevent static discharges from causing them to explode when they arrived at their destination and made hose connections. Now they attach ground wires from the in ground tanks to the tankers when they arrive. This is necessary as the tanker builds up a static charge as the fuel flows out. A ground strap which drags the ground is continually discharging the static so it does no build up.

To Black John Flint: The fire extinguisher analogy doesen't explain what happens in an Escape because the brake system is closed. The fire extinguisher is not. It discharges it's contents (CO2) out to the air just as storm clouds discharge rain and build up charges which generate lightning.

Suggestion: Ask the dealer to look at all of the high voltage wiring, easily checked since it is wrapped in orange insulation. They can check for possible short circuits to the body. Don't forget though that the high voltage wiring is used for both sides of the circuit, power and ground. It does not ground through the car body like the 12 volt system. You would have to have a short circuit to both sides of the circuit.


Good luck and I hope this works out for you.