news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051014/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_toyota_recall_3
AP Toyota Recalls 160,000 Prius Hybrids Fri Oct 14, 8:58 AM ET TOKYO - Toyota is recalling 160,000 Prius gasoline-electric hybrid cars w orldwide because their engines can stop due to an electrical problem, Ja pan's top automaker said Friday.
No accidents or injuries have been reported linked to the problem, in whi ch engines in some Prius cars have stalled while driving, causing the ve hicles to run just on the electric motor, Toyota Motor Corp. A glitch in the computer programming controlling the e lectronic units is believed to be behind the problem, he said. The recall covers 75,000 Prius cars in the United States, 70,000 in Japan and the remainder in Europe, Australia and other markets, manufactured from August 2003 through February 2005. Toyota is not disclosing the costs for the recall, Fujii said. Toyota, which started selling the Prius in 1997, has led the global auto market with hybrids, which switch back and forth between a gasoline engi ne and battery-powered electric motor to deliver the most efficient and ecological ride, depending on the driving conditions and speed of the ca r Toyota sold 125,700 Prius vehicles globally last year. The company began investigating the problem after the US National Highw ay Traffic Safety Administration received reports of Prius engines stall ing. But the problem is not an immediately safety problem because driver s can count on the hybrid's electric motor to steer to the side of the r oad, Fujii said. NHTSA closed its investigation after Toyota said it would voluntarily rec all the vehicles.
The informati on contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewr itten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associ ated Press.
|