5th Oct 2018 14:47
TOKYO (Alliance News) - Toyota Motor Corp said Friday it is recalling 2.4 million vehicles globally due to hybrid-system faults.
The recall mainly affects Prius and Auris cars produced between October 2008 and November 2014. It includes 1.25 million vehicles in Japan, 830,000 in North America, and 290,000 in Europe.
In the US, the recall covers about 807,000 vehicles of 2010-2014 model year Toyota Prius and 2012-2014 Prius V vehicles.
Toyota said the recalled vehicles are designed to enter a "fail-safe" mode in response to certain hybrid-system faults. In rare situations, the vehicle may not enter a 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.
The vehicles involved in the recall were previously recalled in February 2014 and July 2015. Toyota said the current recall provides a remedy to address a new condition in the vehicles involved in the previous recalls, which did not anticipate this new condition.
According to the automaker, dealers will update the software for all involved vehicles, at no charge. The company will notify the involved customers once the software update is available.
This is the second recall by Toyota for the Prius within a month. In early September, Toyota announced a safety recall that involved certain 2016-2018 model year Prius vehicles due to fire risk. That recall included about 192,000 vehicles in the US.