Toyota Built the Most Reliable Cars on Earth. Its EVs Have a 100% Recall Rate.

A month later, Toyota's Chinese joint venture recalled another 24,000 bZ7 sedans. What went wrong? A faulty Bluetooth module could cause unintended gear shifts while driving, disrupting power delivery.^[2] Bluetooth. Shifting gears. On a highway. In 2026.

These are not isolated incidents. Toyota's first mass-market EV, the bZ4X, debuted in 2022 with a recall for wheels that could fall off the car. Hub bolts from supplier Meidoh would vibrate loose after sharp turns or braking, sometimes after just a few miles. Toyota issued a "do not drive" order, offered buybacks, and paused sales for three months. Every single vehicle had the defect.^[3] Since then, the bZ4X has been recalled for HVAC defrosters that stop working in cold weather, and rearview camera displays that freeze or go blank when you shift into reverse.^[4]

Toyota's ICE vehicles earned their reputation. In the FARS database, Toyota's brand-level crash lethality sits at 56.2%, solidly middle-of-pack. The RAV4 kills 49.8% of drivers in its fatal crashes. The Highlander, 45.4%. The Prius, their hybrid pioneer, 53.7%.^[5] These are not deathmobiles. Across 22,019 deaths and 39,159 crashes spanning a decade, Toyota built cars that absorb impacts about as well as anyone. Their EV program is a different animal entirely.

No one has died in a Toyota bZ recall event. No crashes have been reported. That matters. But consider the trajectory: wheels that detach, Bluetooth that shifts gears, ECUs that brick the drivetrain, defrosters that quit, cameras that freeze. Five distinct failure categories across three model years, spanning mechanical, software, and electrical domains. This is not one bad supplier or one software bug. It is a company rebuilding its institutional knowledge from scratch.

Toyota saw this movie before. In 2009-2010, unintended acceleration recalls hit 9 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Floor mats, sticky pedals, and software all played a role. Congressional hearings followed. Toyota overhauled its quality process. What followed: a decade of the most reliable mass-market vehicles on sale. Smaller in scale, the bZ crisis is broader in scope. Unintended acceleration was one failure mode in one system. Five recall campaigns now span every major EV subsystem: battery management, propulsion, climate control, driver displays, and the wheels themselves.

If you drive a 2026 Toyota bZ or Lexus RZ: Check your VIN at Toyota.com/recall or nhtsa.gov/recalls. Your battery ECU software update is free. If you own a 2023 bZ4X, confirm the hub bolt recall was completed. No Toyota bZ fatalities have been recorded, but a dead drivetrain at 70 mph does not require a body count to be dangerous.