Toyota Motor Corp. has issued a massive recall of 1.9 million units worldwide, of which 127 cars have been affected in India due to a software error in the Toyota Prius Hybrid car.
Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) has issued a massive recall of 1.9 million units worldwide for its Toyota Prius Hybrid car – of which, 127 cars are in India – due to a nasty software glitch. The Japanese automaker is calling back all of its third-generation Prius Hybrid cars, which were produced between March 2009 and February 2014 to rectify the underlying cause of the defect.
The aforementioned software glitch has been traced down to the car’s Engine Control Unit (ECU) that is reportedly, causing some transistors to overheat. This in turn, is sending the car into a fail-safe mode and, under some circumstances could cause the hybrid system in the Prius to shut down, even while driving – bringing the vehicle to an unexpected stop.
“The setting of the software could cause higher thermal stress in certain transistors within the booster converter, and these transistors could deform or become damaged as a result.” a Toyota official said. “This will result in various warning lights being illuminated and will probably cause the vehicle to enter a fail-safe mode” he further added.
Of the 1.9 million units of the Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles recalled worldwide, 9,97,000 stay affected in company’s home turf, Japan; while 7,13,000 units have been affected in North America, 1,30,000 units in Europe and the remaining in Asia, the Middle East and other regions. The customers are now being contacted and requested to get their respective cars to the nearest Toyota showrooms. The rectifying of the said malfunction could take up to 40 minutes and will of course, be done free of cost. The aforementioned recall is the third such recall for the current generation, five year old Toyota Prius Hybrid car.
Toyota is undoubtedly, the world’s most advanced automaker in terms of hybrid technology and hybrid system know-how, having mass produced world’s first hybrid vehicles. But the complexity of the hybrid system is intertwined with a lot of other complex electronic systems making is difficult to quickly detect the underlying cause of the problem.
A vehicle recall for any automaker is a time of trial and retrospection, not to mention is also a very costly affair. However, the recall in question, poses a far bigger challenge to Toyota and therefore, a lot of other global auto majors as they increasingly move on to using more and more electronic parts in their cars. Furthermore, many models under the same brand share electronic parts to reduce costs – a strategy that involuntarily increases the number of recalls. Thankfully, no life threatening injuries or risks has been reported from anywhere in the world due to the latest defect.
