Toyota recalls 1.9m cars, 5500 in Australia

Another recall has hit Toyota, with the brand issuing a notice on the hybrid Prius for a defect that can see the cars suddenly lose power or stop, creating a safety risk for occupants and nearby traffic.

The problem has been traced to a fault in the software that controls a power converter, and affects 1.9 million Prius cars around the world built between 2009 and 2014, with 5500 affected in Australia. The software failure can activate the car's warning lights and cause it to enter 'limp home' mode, allowing it to still be driven but only slowly.

"Because, in the worst case, the car could stop while driving we do consider this a potential safety issue and that's the reason why we are implementing this recall," a spokesman at Toyota's Japanese headquarters told media.

However, Toyota Australia spokesman Mike Breen said there have been no incidents reported locally. "We're contacting local owners, who can take their Prius to a dealer and have the software remapped," he said, adding that the fix would take about an hour. Breen said there were no extra precautions Prius owners needed to take until the issue was rectified.

The recall follows two previous ones for the Prius -- in 2013 and 2010 -- however this is the largest in scale. It comes on the heels of news that Toyota is close to settling a US$1.1 billion claim from a class action lawsuit by 16.3 million owners of vehicles whose value was affected by previous recalls.

Toyota also yesterday announced an overseas recall on other models, including the RAV4 and Lexus RX350, but there will be no impact on Australia as the defective feature is not available here.