The fix will enable Toyota Motor Corp. to resume making and selling the EVs, a key model in the company's effort to strengthen its electric lineup. Toyota officials said they hoped the fix would help restore the company's reputation for quality.
Japan’s top automaker Toyota said Thursday that it has identified how to fix its 2023 model year bZ4X crossover electric vehicles after recalling 2,700 of them in June out of concern wheel bolts might become loose, risking a crash.
The fix will enable Toyota Motor Corp. to resume making and selling the EVs, a key model in the company’s effort to strengthen its electric lineup. Toyota officials said they hoped the fix would help restore the company’s reputation for quality.
The maker of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models has scored great success with its hybrids and fuel cells, but it has at times been seen as a straggler in electric vehicles. The “bZ” in the model’s name stands for a “beyond zero” series, referring to its being free of emissions.
Toyota said new bolt parts needed to fix the problem with the bZ4X will become available for all global customers by November. The company said hub bolts and wheels of all vehicles in the recall will be replaced at no cost to customers.
Since issuing the global safety recall, Toyota has been investigating the cause of the problem. It said that if the hub bolts attaching the wheels to the cars became loose, the wheels might loosen and cause a crash. The company showed a diagram illustrating that an extra part could be added to the bolt to secure it in place.
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