Toyota has issued a worldwide voluntary recall for 1.9 million units of its Prius hybrid cars, including 167 cars from India. The company has discovered a problem with the software that makes the vehicle enter fail safe mode posing a risk for the drivers. The 167 owners from India will be contacted by Toyota from 14th February onwards, even though the company claims there have been no complaints in India about the issue. Though seen as responsible on the part of companies to issue voluntary recalls, it does raise doubts on the kind of build quality and part usage our vehicles are subjected to.
In this latest recall from Toyota, the issue at fault is a software error that would control the power converter forcing the car into fail safe mode. The defect would set off the warning lights and lead to sudden loss of power. The car would eventually come to a halt; however it was seen as a potential risk for drivers on the road. Toyota says the software needs to be updated on the cars and will be carried out free of cost. The repair work will take 1 to 1.5 hours. Toyota issued the recall after 300 cases of the defect were found in Japan and 90 cases in North America, the two largest markets for the Prius hybrid.
The recall comprises of 9,97,000 units in Japan and 7,13,000 vehicles in North America, while the rest of the units come from Europe, Middle-East and China. Albeit the number for the recall might be small in India, Prius is seen as a symbol of green peace in the western hemisphere, a popular model among celebrities. Toyota has sold over 3.6 million Prius hybrids globally and was also one of the first hybrids to come to the country. The recall does put a dent in the image of the company known to manufacture cars with bullet proof reliability.
This has been Toyota’s third major recall in India after 41,000 units of the Etios twins were recalled back in 2010 for faulty inlet pipe to fuel tank and 1100 units of the Corolla Altis diesel were recalled in 2013 due to faulty drive shaft. The Altis recall was part of again a worldwide recall comprising of 17.3 lakh vehicles, one of the biggest in the company’s history. The company had issued a recall for the Prius earlier last year and again in 2010 as well, for different problems.
