In response to government pressure both in North America and in Toyota ’s home market of Japan, the automaker says that has been aware of the issue and that a recall might be possible. Now, an early report out of a Japanese newspaper is claiming that a 277,000 vehicle global recall is imminent.
Toyota ’s quality manager, Hiroyuki Yokoyama, told reporters that Toyota became aware of an issue with the Prius losing braking power when traveling on rough roads, over potholes and even on ice. Toyota says that it began producing a fixed version of the Prius models which have been sold since late January. Toyota is officially still debating what to do about Prius models currently on the road. The issue affects only Toyota’s latest 2010 Prius, which was redesigned for the model year and has been on sale for less than a year.
Now, the Nikkei newspaper is reporting that Toyota has decided to recall a total of 277,000 Prius vehicles, with approximately 100,000 of them sold in the U.S. market. NHTSA is also investigating roughly 37,000 2010 Prius models already on the road in the U.S. Toyota has not officially acknowledged the recall at this time, but the Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota will be filing the official recalls with both the Japanese Transport Ministry and NHTSA.
Yokoyama described the issue as a “a slight unresponsiveness†in the pedal that occurs only during braking on icy or rough roads. It has been linked to at least one accident in Japan.
The fact that Toyota was aware of the problem and implemented a fix into production without notifying current owners is cause for concern, according to Japan’s transportation ministry. The government agency is launching an investigation into Toyota’s response to the complaints it received.
Toyota’s fix
Toyota says that the issue is a software problem with the anti-lock braking system. It is unclear whether the fix was implemented during the production process or as part of a software update.
The automaker has not decided how it will fix already sold 2010 Prius models.
Denting Toyota’s image
While the automaker’s massive, global accelerator pedal recall of many of its most popular models hasn’t exactly been an image booster, analysts are even more concerned about what a Prius safety recall could do for Toyota. The high-mpg Prius is Toyota’s technology and image flagship, even though it isn’t the automaker’s sales leader.
“The Prius is such a popular car for Toyota. The timing could be very damaging,†said Kohei Takahashi, a Tokyo-based analyst for J.P. Morgan, in an interview with The New York Times. “If there is a recall, Toyota could see Prius sales fall, at least in the short run.â€
