Toyota Tells U.S. Dealers to Expect Prius Plan Update this Week

Toyota Motor Corp., grappling with record U.S. recalls, told U.S. dealers to expect an update early this week on steps the company plans to take to address complaints over brakes on the 2010 model Prius hybrid, Bloomberg reported.

“We notified dealers in a short letter yesterday that we believe we’ll have more specific information on our plans for Prius next week,” John Hanson, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said on Feb. 6. “We know dealers have customers coming to them who are concerned and we’re trying to give them as much information as we can, as fast as we can.”

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, didn’t tell dealers it will make a formal “announcement” on a Prius fix and hasn’t yet determined whether a recall is necessary, he said. The carmaker plans to recall at least 311,000 Prius cars early this week, the New York Times reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Ririko Takeuchi, a spokeswoman for Toyota in Tokyo, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the report.

A recall of the latest version of the Prius, the world’s best-selling hybrid car, may further tarnish the reputation of the Toyota City, Japan-based company. The automaker has already recalled 5.6 million cars and light trucks in the U.S. since November to correct flaws linked to unintended acceleration, an issue Toyota says isn’t connected to Prius brakes.

Toyota rose 0.5 percent to 3,330 yen as of 10:46 a.m. in Tokyo trading today. The stock has fallen 20 percent since Jan. 21, when the carmaker began recalling vehicles to fix gas pedals linked to unintended acceleration.