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2012 TOYOTA PRIUS — Complaint #1458731

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NHTSA Complaint about HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM: INVERTER filed April 2, 2018

NHTSA complaint #1458731 (ODI reference 11082601) concerns a 2012 TOYOTA PRIUS and was filed on April 2, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 28, 2018. The vehicle had 79,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as hybrid propulsion system: inverter, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA PRIUS cohort independently describe similar hybrid propulsion system: inverter failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2012 TOYOTA PRIUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2012 TOYOTA PRIUS
Component
HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM: INVERTER
State
California
Mileage
79,000 mi

Complaint Description

MY HUSBAND WAS DRIVING THE CAR PREPARING TO TURN TO ENTER THE FREEWAY WHEN THE PRIUS LOST ALL DRIVING POWER SPONTANEOUSLY AT THE SAME TIME PROMPTED WITH A WARNING ON THE SCREEN 'CHECK HYBRID SYSTEM AND PARK IN A SAFE PLACE'. THE CAR LOST ALL DRIVING POWER INCLUDING POWER STEERING BUT MY HUSBAND WAS ABLE TO GLIDE THE VEHICLE ACROSS SEVERAL LANES TO A PARKED POSITION BEFORE THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE. THE CAR NEVER RESUMED ITS ABILITY TO DRIVE DESPITE TURNING IT OFF AND AN ATTEMPT TO RESTART. THE PRIUS WAS TOWED TO THE HOUSE AND TOWED AGAIN TO THE DEALERSHIP THE FOLLOWING DAY FOR AN ASSESSMENT AND REPAIR. AS A TOYOTA CUSTOMER, WE WERE INFORMED THE VEHICLE HAD EXPERIENCED INVERTER/COMPONENT FAILURE. MY VEHICLE HAD A RECALL YEARS EARLIER TO REFLASH SOFTWARE IN THE PRIUS INVERTER, BUT THIS DID NOT RESOLVE/PREVENT THE SPONTANEOUS INVERTER FAILURE WE EXPERIENCED ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2018. IT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT TOYOTA CORPORATION IS AWARE OF SEVERAL CUSTOMERS REPORTING SIMIL

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1458731
ODI Number 11082601
Date Filed April 2, 2018
Failure Date March 28, 2018
VIN JDTKN3DU0C5

Similar HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM: INVERTER Complaints for 2012 TOYOTA PRIUS

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.