Toyota will then resume sales on October 26 in Japan, with bZ4X sales in the U.S. following shortly afterward, as Automotive News reports.
What happened to Toyota bZ4X?
Two months after the debut of the Toyota bZ4X, the Japanese auto giant issued a recall of 2,700 crossovers because of a production defect could lead to the car's wheels falling off. For the same reason, 1,600 Subaru Solterra vehicles were recalled. The recall traced to the high torque of the bZ4X's electric motor and its effect on the EV's wheel hub bolts. To make matters worse, the weight of the EV's battery pack added strain to the wheel hub bolts, making it harder for these to stay tightly fastened under abrupt acceleration and deceleration.
Toyota is fixing the defect by adding a washer to the hub bolts and improving the friction of the wheel surface. Toyota will also confirm that wheel surfaces adhere to stricter quality processing, and verify that replacement hub bolts are properly tightened during assembly. Toyota will reportedly apply the same process to all of its EVs in the future. That includes any EVs that the company produces with other carmakers, such as the Subaru Solterra.
"It is embarrassing to say that we had done various assessments but we couldn't detect this problem because we didn't conduct the assessments based on a premise that the quality of wheels would be so off in the assessment process, [...] We will respond firmly to regain trust in the [safety] of Toyota vehicles" Toyota's Chief Technology Officer Masahiko Maeda explained.