RoadVitals

2021 Toyota Prius Owner Complaints

Reports submitted to NHTSA by owners and drivers, shown in full

Data refreshed

Complaints on fileComplaints are reports submitted to NHTSA by owners and drivers. NHTSA does not verify most reports before publishing them, and a complaint does not establish that a defect exists. Volume is influenced by how many of a vehicle were sold, how long it has been on the road, and how much attention an issue has received.
6
Latest Feb 23, 2026
Crash or fire reportedComplaints whose submitter recorded that a crash or a fire occurred. These are the reporter's own answers on the NHTSA form, not verified findings.
1
Filed in the last 12 monthsReports filed with NHTSA in the trailing 365 days. Recent volume reflects attention and vehicle age as much as anything else.
1
Reports on file since Mar 25, 2021

What this page shows

Our database holds 6 NHTSA owner-reported complaints for the 2021 Toyota Prius. Each one is a report filed by an owner or driver and published by NHTSA without most of them being verified. A complaint is not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. Narratives are shown exactly as filed.

Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.

Complaints, most recent first

Showing 1–6 of 6

Fuel system
Filed Feb 23, 2026

When i am going down it's charging when the charge reaches 6 from 8 the engine starts working and stop changing at that point and the power continues comes from engine only without the hybrid battery and there are no codes

NHTSA ID
11719876
Incident
Oct 31, 2023
Driver assistance
Filed Sep 18, 2024

The contact owns a 2021 Toyota Prius. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 - 45 MPH, the vehicle independently accelerated. The brake pedal was depressed but failed to stop the vehicle immediately. The contact swerved around the vehicle in front and ended up on the opposite side of the roadway. The contact attempted to avoid oncoming traffic and swerving around all the other vehicles and ended up in a ravine. The contact's husband depressed the START/STOP button from the passenger’s side to turn off the vehicle, enabling the vehicle to come to a stop. The contact restarted the vehicle and continued to drive the vehicle to the dealer at slow speeds. The dealer was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure by the dealer. The failure mileage was 56,000.

NHTSA ID
11615271
Incident
Sep 14, 2024
Mileage
56,000 mi
Driver assistance
Filed Jul 14, 2023

The Lane keeping assist used in radar cruise control mode during some drive cycles will attempt to maintain the vehicle position to the far extreme of the lane and in some cases actively veer out of the lane. My safety ant others can be put at risk when the vehicle behaves outside of its design parameters like this. To solve the issue the vehicle must be pulled over, turned off, then restarted. After the restart it will resume functioning normally, maintaining lane positioning as intended within the limits of the system. The trigger for this is unknown but could be speculated that it is drive cycle dependent and may start during initialization. The problem has not been reproduced by a dealer or service center due to its intermittent nature. There are no warning indicators or lamps on when this occurs.

NHTSA ID
11532235
Incident
Jan 4, 2022
BrakesElectricalEngine
Filed Jun 13, 2023
Crash reported

The car accelerated without my foot on the accelerator, brake did not respond, and I had to drive through grass and a rock-filled ditch until after about 10 seconds the car returned to my control.

NHTSA ID
11526893
Incident
May 8, 2023
EngineFuel system
Filed May 11, 2021

CARBON MONOXIDE SEEPS INTO THE PASSENGER CAR BUT DILLER CANNOT FIND IT AND DID NOT HAVE TOOLS TO DETECT CO LEVEL IN THE CAR. I CAN'T USE THIS CAR BECAUSE WAS POISONED MANY TIMES AND AFTER A SECOND CHECK-UP, THE LEVEL OF CO BECOMES HIGHER SO I CAN'T DRIVE THE CAR WITHOUT POISONING. PLEASE HELP ME. I AM WORRYING TO SELL MY CAR BECAUSE OTHER DRIVER WILL GET INJURY. THIS IS THE NEW CAR ONLY 7000 MILES.

NHTSA ID
11416154
Incident
Feb 26, 2021
Mileage
5,200 mi
Other / unspecified
Filed Mar 25, 2021

WHILE DRIVING ON THE I 4 WE HAD A BLOWOUT ON THE REAR PASSENGER TIRE. THE CAR HAD LESS THAN 200 MILES ON IT SO IT WAS BRAND NEW. THE DEALERSHIP FOUND OBJECT IN THE TIRE THAT COULD HAVE CAUSE THE PROBLEM THE ONLY CONCLUSION I COULD COME TO IS THAT THIS TIRE WAS DEFECTIVE. THE DEALERSHIP SAID I COULD HAVE RUN OVER A LARGE OBJECT OR A LARGE POTHOLE, WHICH I DOUBT.

NHTSA ID
11404863
Incident
Mar 23, 2021
Mileage
190 mi

Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.

Data sources

Data on this page last refreshed .