Toyota Motor is set to file recalls over brake problems with its latest Prius hybrid in both the United States and Japan, in a move that will affect more than 270,000 vehicles, Japanese sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The company also plans to file recalls over other hybrid models, such as the luxury Lexus HS250h sedan and the hybrid-only Sai compact sedan, which employ a similar brake system to the Prius petrol-electric hybrid, the sources told Kyodo News.
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Toyota has apparently decided it needs to act promptly to address growing complaints over its best-selling hybrid model with criticism already mounting about its response to a recent spate of quality issues, including a massive global recall over faulty accelerator pedals in some of its other vehicles.
Toyota is ironing out the final details of the recall in Japan with the government and plans to report it to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry by Wednesday, according to the sources.
The planned recalls would affect about 100,000 units in the United States and around 170,000 units in Japan. The model was released last May in Japan and in June in the United States.
The automaker has sold more than 300,000 units of the Prius in about 60 countries and regions, and plans to gradually implement recalls outside of Japan and the United States as well. Its New Zealand distributor has already implemented a voluntary recall, according to a local press report.
Once the recalls are official, Prius owners will be able to take their vehicles to nearby dealers where the problems will be fixed by improving the software for the antilock brake system. The procedure itself is expected to take from less than half an hour to up to around two hours.
The software for the repair has already arrived at some Toyota dealers.
”Once the recall is announced, we are prepared to open on our regular holidays to respond (to our customers),” a manager of a dealership in Fukushima Prefecture told Kyodo News.
Toyota has sold about 18,000 units of the Lexus HS250h worldwide and about 7,000 units of the Sai in Japan.
The plug-in Prius hybrid, which was leased to government and corporate clients on a limited basis from late last year, is also expected to be subject to the recall, the sources said.
Toyota officials had said following complaints about the temporary failure of Prius brakes to work properly that there was no serious defect and had sought to fix the brakes on a voluntary basis under what they dubbed a ”service campaign.”
But the automaker has received a flood of complaints from owners, pressuring Toyota to opt for a more binding recall measure both in Japan and the United States.
”We had to protect our brand value at any cost,” a senior Toyota official told the news agency.
Toyota’s US unit has begun to resume temporarily sales of eight models, including the popular Camry and Corolla, following last week’s announcement of a remedy for faulty accelerator pedals.
The automaker will also resume production of the eight models in five plants in North America following a one-week suspension over a recall of about 2.21m vehicles in the United States. The recall has since spread to Europe, China, Latin America and other parts of the world.
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