A fault tolerant (FT) controller for a class of over-actuated nonlinear system is presented. As the fault information is unknown before the fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) procedure finishes, the passive FT control is of great necessity in maintaining system stability and achieving acceptable performance. In this study, the actuators' additive fault and the loss-of-effectiveness faults are considered. A FT controller which works for both types of fault is designed. A vehicle control example for a four wheel independently-actuated (FWIA) electric vehicle is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.