Toyota said Friday that it is recalling 2.4 million hybrid-electric cars, mostly Prius models, around the world to fix an electronic defect that cause the vehicles to suddenly lose power that could "increase the risk of a crash."
The recall in the U.S. includes various Prius models that were built from 2010 to 2014, the same cars that were recalled earlier and fixed with a software update that lawsuits allege was not effective in preventing power losses.
Hundreds of Prius owners have filed complaints with dealers, the government and the news media. The Times first disclosed the problem in a series of stories earlier this year.
In a notice issued to U.S. dealers on Friday, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, Toyota said the electronic defect could cause a sudden loss of power that would "increase the risk of a crash." It was the first time the company has acknowledged that the earlier recall still left owners unsafe.
The Toyota recall affects 807,000 vehicles in the U.S. and 1.25 million in Japan, including some models of the Auris, a lesser-selling hybrid. Toyota announced the recall in Tokyo, saying it had received three reports in Japan from owners about the stalling.
Toyota said it is developing a remedy, which is likely to be another software update.
Toyota has been sued in Southern California by a dealer, Roger Hogan, and faces a suit seeking class-action status. Those suits allege that the earlier recall did not fix the defect. A trial date for the dealer's suit has been set for next year.
The Prius hybrid system depends on a shoebox-sized device, known as an inverter, that boosts voltage from the vehicle's batter to its motors and then reduces the voltage when the brakes recharge the battery.
The inverters have been overheating, causing the software that controls the vehicles to shut down or put the vehicle into what is known as a limp-home mode that is supposed to allow drivers to safety get to the side of the road.
In late 2017, Hogan filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that alleged the earlier recall in 2014 had failed to remedy the problem and that he was seeing cars that had melted electronic components after the software fix had been installed.
The NHTSA began an inquiry into the matter but never announced that it had started a preliminary evaluation or a defect investigation. The agency did not respond Friday to questions about whether it had an agreement with Toyota about the new recall or had closed its inquiry.
Hogan said in interviews earlier this year that he had serviced more than 100 Prius models that received the software update but had overheated inverters and had lost power.
Since The Times began reporting on the Prius inverter problem, it has received dozens of emails from across the country from Prius owners saying their vehicles lost power and left them stranded even after the recall had been performed.
