Toyota recalls vehicles on account of fire safety

ABU DHABI:  Automobile giant Toyota has decided to recall more than one million of its cars fearing the possibility of fire from the wire harness. The vehicles to be recalled include the Toyota Prius, Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid and Toyota C-HR hybrid. These models feature wire harness attached with the hybrid vehicle power control unit that has a chance of getting worn with time, thereby leading to a short circuit! As a result, heat may be generated in a sufficiently large amount to produce a fire in the car! Preventing such mishap is the motive behind the drive initiated by Toyota earlier this month.

Previously, the Japanese manufacturer had recalled more than 1.7 million cars due to faulty airbags in the year 2016. For Prius, the biggest recall it faced so far was in 2014, affecting 1.9 million of its units.  The manufacturer has already recalled 192,000 units of the 2016 to 2018 Prius hybrids in the US. The drive will also impact Europe, North America and other markets. The vehicles to be affected in near future will make the total count a little more than 1.3 million.

The company has assured its customers of checking and repairing the vehicles that are believed to have been impacted. This will mainly include the ones that were manufactured during the time period from the middle of 2015 to May 2018. As a part of the initiative, the current state of the harness of these vehicles will be checked. In case the core is exposed, they will consider replacing the assembly with another one with a protective sleeve. On the other hand, if the core is not exposed, a protective tape will be used in the engine wire assembly.

 

The move by Toyota may bring hassles for the customers but will ensure their safety in the long run. Until now, no such accidents have been recorded because of the defect as confirmed by a spokesperson of the company. It will soon inform all the affected customers about the drive via mail, in the local market as well. Before that, the car-owners can also check whether their customer identification numbers appear in the recall site of Toyota!