Report: Toyota to recall Priuses

February 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Company launches probe into Lexus models

Combined dispatches

TOKYO — Toyota will recall 270,000 Prius hybrid vehicles over brake problems in the United States and Japan, a report said today, while the beleaguered auto giant launched an investigation into possible problems with the brakes in its luxury Lexus hybrid.

The recall would affect the new Prius hybrid model, and Toyota Motor Corp. would soon notify Japan’s transport ministry and the U.S. Department of Transportation of the recall, Japan’s top business newspaper, Nihon Keizai, said today.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK also said Toyota was considering a recall of Prius hybrids in the U.S. and Japan.

Takayuki Fujimoto, a transport ministry official, said the government has yet to receive a recall notice from Toyota. Toyota cannot announce a recall in Japan until it notifies the ministry.

Toyota spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said today that Toyota had not yet decided whether to recall the Prius.

“Nothing has been decided on whether we will recall or not,” Takeuchi said.

The new Prius hybrid went on sale in Japan and the United States in May 2009. More than 170,000 of the new Prius models have been sold in Japan, with around 103,000 sold in the U.S. since May.

Toyota, reeling from massive global recalls of 4.5 million vehicles involving faulty gas pedals, acknowledged Thursday design problems with the brakes in its prized Prius.

A new federal investigation into braking problems with the Prius is just one in a series of possible glitches that may be linked to the vehicle’s complex electronics, including headlights that fail inexplicably, records and interviews show.

Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had opened a formal investigation into the 2010 model Prius after getting 124 complaints from drivers of a brief loss in braking power, which has been blamed in four crashes, two of which resulted in injuries.

Toyota, which has also been asked to study the braking problem by the Japanese government, said in a statement that it was cooperating with investigators and that it had implemented a “production change” last month to resolve the issue, which it says is in the anti-lock brake system.

A Los Angeles Times review of safety records indicates that the Prius is prone to a number of other safety issues that motorists complain have not been resolved.

Takeuchi said Toyota has launched a probe into the luxury Lexus HS250h hybrid model for possible brake problems in Japan and the United States as the vehicle uses the same brake system as the new Prius hybrid.

Toyota said Thursday it had corrected problems with the anti-lock brake system in the new Prius models sold since late last month, including those shipped overseas.

But the company said it was still deciding what steps to take to fix the problem in Prius cars sold in Japan and overseas before late January.