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Toyota Motor Corp. launched a massive global recall of its popular Prius hybrid to fix a software glitch that could cause the car to stall, an aggressive reaction to counter past criticism of its slow response to defects, experts said.
The Japanese automaker also said it would recall about 260,000 RAV4 sport utility vehicles, Tacoma trucks and Lexus RX350 SUVs sold in the United States to address a separate issue.
The recall of the Prius, one of America’s best-selling passenger cars and the top-selling vehicle in California, covers 1.9 million hybrids from the 2010 through 2014 model years. It involves about 1 million cars in Japan, about 700,000 in North America and the rest in Europe and other regions.
As a part of the global recall of Prius announced by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), its Indian arm Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) also announced a recall campaign in India on Wednesday.
Toyota said it will update software in the electronic controls of the car.
The software’s current settings could generate heat in some of the transistors in the car’s circuits, damaging the parts. When this happens, warning lights on the dashboard activate. In rare circumstances, the hybrid system might shut down while the vehicle is being driven, creating a sudden stall.
The automaker said it knows of no accidents or injuries resulting from the problem.
In the other recalls, Toyota will update software on certain 2012 RAV4s, 2012-13 Tacomas and 2012-13 Lexus RX350 models to fix an electronic circuit condition that can cause the vehicle stability control, anti-lock brake and traction control functions to turn off intermittently.
Analysts said the size of the recalls reflects Toyota’s reaction to past criticism that it didn’t move fast enough in recent years to address sudden acceleration issues in 2009 and other problems in its cars.