In June, Toyota issued a warning to owners of its BZ4X electric SUV to stop driving the vehicle and transport it to a dealership due to a serious issue: the wheels could fall off while driving even after a short time on the road.
Toyota didn’t know why this was happening, but the automaker said it would investigate and fix the problem once engineers understood why the wheels were coming off. Now, more than a month later, Toyota still hasn’t identified the problem and is offering to simply buy back the SUVs from customers who no longer want to wait for the problem to be fixed.
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As the problem became evident shortly after the SUVs went on sale, there are only about 260 BZ4X owners in the United States facing this situation. There are more who ordered the SUV but still hadn’t delivered it when the “Do Not Drive” warning was announced. These customers were never able to take delivery of their SUVs.
The automaker has offered several options beyond the buyback while asking owners for patience. Toyota is also offering customers free use of another Toyota vehicle until the problem is found and fixed. Toyota is also offering owners $5,000 in car payments or as a partial refund of the purchase price. Toyota will also extend the vehicles’ factory warranty for the period of time – whatever it is – that the SUVs are taken out of service.
For customers who simply want to sell their vehicles back, the exact terms of the buyback may vary depending on various state regulations and specifics of the owner’s situation.
The BZ4X is almost identical to the Subaru Solterra electric SUV. The two Japanese automakers jointly developed the vehicles. Subaru did not need to recall any SUVs in the United States, as none had been delivered before the problem was discovered.
Toyota is not the first automaker to recall electric vehicles in recent years. General Motors has offered to buy back Chevrolet Bolt EVs after reports of battery fires. This case potentially involved many more vehicles than the relative of a handful of BZ4Xes, but Bolt owners were at least able to continue using their vehicles with certain restrictions. GM eventually discovered the root problem and is now able to replace batteries in vehicles that needed them. GM did not say how many customers took advantage of the buyback offer.
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