Toyota Recalls 10,000 C-HR EVs That May Lose Power While Driving

One of Toyota's newest EVs launched in the U.S. has a software issue, and a dealership visit is the only way to fix it.

2026 Toyota C-HR

Photo by: Suvrat Kothari

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Sep 9, at 3:40am ET

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Toyota is recalling one of its newest EVs in America.
The electric drive systems of certain C-HR crossovers sold here could shut down while driving.
It’s a software issue, but in the age of smartphone-like cars, owners need to visit their dealer to fix the problem.

Toyota is recalling approximately 10,000 C-HR electric crossovers sold in North America over a potentially dangerous safety issue. The affected vehicles, all 2026 models, could cut power while driving, which increases the risk of a crash.

According to the automaker, this is caused by a software issue with the Battery Electric Vehicle Electronic Control Unit, which can overcharge the traction battery under regenerative braking when the state of charge is already high. As a reminder, under regenerative braking, the electric motor works as a generator, slowing down the car and sending energy back to the high-voltage battery.

Gallery: 2026 Toyota C-HR

2026 Toyota C-HR

Source: Suvrat Kothari

If the traction battery is already full, it will not accept additional energy, and its safety guardrails will shut down the system to prevent overcharging. That’s what’s happening with the affected 2026 Toyota C-HRs recalled in America right now.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not published relevant documents regarding this recall yet, but the automaker said that updating the faulty control unit’s software fixes the problem. A visit to the dealer is needed, though, which is still hard to grasp in 2026, when over-the-air software updates should be the norm in new cars.

And the 2026 C-HR is a new electric car–it just can’t get software updates wirelessly. Despite debuting at the same time as the new RAV4, which is Toyota’s bread and butter, the C-HR gets an older version of the company’s infotainment system instead of the latest Arene setup.

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As we discovered during our time with the C-HR, Toyota’s smallest EV gets a slow-to-boot 14-inch infotainment touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity—but that’s about it in terms of modern tech.

Still, this didn’t seem to stop a lot of people from buying one. In the first half of the year, Toyota’s EV sales in the U.S. exploded by 136% compared to the same period in 2025, and much of that was down to the launch of the C-HR, updated bZ, and new bZ Woodland.

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