Featured 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime recalled for potential stalling in cold weather

That's a bummer, even as owners are getting their cars back after the wheels falling off potential debacle.
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I wish I had the problem, so I had the car

 

Is the 16 thousand everyone sold?

Could this be an outcome of trying to have a PHEV be a BEV at all times? Maybe this is the reason other PHEVs have the engine coming on in the cold.

 

Ooops - thx for that catch.

A plugin service tech for one of our 2 plugins told us that maintaining a more ideal operational temperature preserves battery capacity longevity, whether discharging or recharging. That being said - the last USA Volt production year adjusted the ICE temperature startup - down from north of zero to -13°f.
That seems to indicate Engineers erred on the side of caution originally, & later on - with millions of miles more data - made an alternate determination.
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I was thinking of the Escape and Pacifica PHEVs that have a low temp threshold of 32F.

 

my engine rarely comes on, and i haven't had any problems with it, and don't recall others having problems back in the day, and it's a poorly designed engine, as we know.

 

Is this strictly a 2021 recall? If so it begs the question what did they do differently in 2022.

 

Too bad recall can't be accomplished over the air. Oh wait, it's not a Tesla

 

Which engine is poorly designed? RAV4 Prime or Prius Prime? Both?

 

Gen3 Prius and PiP.
The cooled EGR develops build up. There also could be head gasket and piston ring issues, IIRC.

 

Gen 3

 

In 2010, Toyota tapped the exhaust manifold BEFORE the catalytic converter which loaded up the exhaust cooling valve. Later, they tapped after the catalytic converter and got oil free exhaust gas.

Bob Wilson

 

i suspect the cold weather stalling problem is just fuel related. throttle, injectors, etc.

 

This recall may effect the new market pricing. The stealerships may only be able to get $2,500 over MSRP now ... a 50% price gouge reduction. I feel so sad for them.

 

Toyota told the NHTSA it is software.
2021 TOYOTA RAV4 PRIME SUV AWD | NHTSA (the Feb 2023 one)

Driver calls for a high draw off a cold battery. System parameters says this isn't good for the battery. Instead of turning on the engine, like a good PHEV should, it shuts down everything.

 

According to the report linked to in the OP, there were only 5 instances reported world wide that ended up being fixed under warranty. It took a fairly narrow set of circumstances to trigger the shutdown. You won't find a lot of people in southern California who are accelerating hard in below freezing weather; that was one of the big markets for the car.

I like the idea that Toyota decided to be proactive with the recall, based on the decision that the problem might be triggered more often as the Li-Ion batteries degraded with age.

I've driven my 2017 Prius Prime in the frozen north many times over the last 4 years. I can't recall a time when I had to floor it while driving in conditions that would have also include snow or icy roads.

It might not have the same code in it's ECU as the Prime has. That would be good to know.

 

There are different brand loyalty survey methods so results can be inconsistent. For example JD Powers requires data from the manufacturer and Tesla is well known for not sharing their data. Regardless, Autoline After Hours (from Detroit News) introduced me to S&P Global.

Tesla's May 2022 brand loyalty of 63% is exceptional when viewed from just about any perspective: it is more than double its May 2021 loyalty of 29.4%; it is the highest brand loyalty not only of any luxury brand but of any brand industry-wide in May; it is 12.3 PP above luxury runner-up Lincoln; it is one of only two positive year-over-year results among the 20 luxury brands (with Lincoln); it is the ninth consecutive monthly Tesla loyalty greater than 60%; finally, it is the only brand to break the 60% threshold in brand loyalty in the inventory shortage-impacted 2021 or May CYTD 2022 time periods.​

BTW, another name for "Supercharging" is "Fast DC" charging. There are surveys of fast DC charging that matches my experience with more expensive, unreliable CCS-1 versus Supercharging:

Bob Wilson