Toyota USA recently announced it will conduct a recall of approximately 2,500 2012-2014 model year RAV4 EVs due to components of the vehicle’s Electric Vehicle Traction Motor Assembly. An incredibly important aspect of the all-electric SUV, the faulty parts can cause the RAV4 EV to shift into “neutral”, resulting in a complete loss of drive power, all because of a software issue. Owners will be sent a notification by first class mail to have their traction motor assemblies repaired at certified Toyota dealers.
Developed jointly by Tesla Motors in 2010 and launched to the public in 2012, the RAV4 EV’s faulty component is indeed, a piece supplied by Elon Musk’s company, according to a Bloomberg report. Production of the RAV4 EV stopped last year and now, Toyota seems to be putting a lot of eggs in the hydrogen basket instead. In fact, Toyota global released nearly 6,000 of its fuel cell vehicle patents, 70 of them related to hydrogen, for royalty-free use back in January. The effort was made to “facilitate more rapid expansion of hydrogen station networks,” something Tesla’s CEO once called, “extremely silly,” referencing fuel cells as “fool cells.”
Yoshimi Inaba, executive chairman of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, simply said of Musk, “I think this is not classy.” As of now, Toyota’s in-house developed fuel cells have yet to be recalled.
