The Japanese automaker, Toyota, announced that it will recall more than 2.4 million hybrid cars over a defect that could cause crashes. This recall comes in the wake of another recall made by Toyota in September 2018 that recalled more than one million hybrid cars globally after uncovering a technical problem that could cause fires. The Japanese car giant Toyota has sold more than 12 million hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles globally, including the Prius, since 1997.
Toyota’s most recent announcement affects several models of the Prius and its Auris hybrid vehicles produced between October 2008 and November 2014, with more than a million of the affected cars in Japan. Another 830,000 are in North America, 290,000 in Europe, 3,000 in China, and the rest in other parts of the world.
The recent recall addresses an issue where the cars fail to enter “fail-safe driving mode” as intended. If this occurs, the vehicle could lose power and stall. While power steering and braking would remain operational, a vehicle stall while driving at higher speeds could increase the risk of a crash,” Toyota said. This is not the first time Toyota has had trouble with the fail-safe procedure with these cars. Toyota issued recalls in 2014 and 2015 to address similar issues but not this new condition. In 2016, Toyota announced the recall of 3.37 million vehicles globally over problems with airbags and a fuel emission control units.
In addition, separately, Toyota also announced a recall covering certain 2018 to 2019 Tundra pickup tricks and Sequoia SUVs, as well as 2019 Avalon cars, to repair an airbag defect. “Due to inappropriate programming in the airbag electronic control unit (ECU), a fault may be erroneously detected during vehicle startup which would disable one or more of the sensors used to detect crashes,” Toyota said. This recall covers about 188,000 worldwide, including 168,000 in the U.S.
If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective automobile or product, contact an experienced attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or toll free at 713-222-7211.