AutoUtility currently tracks 15 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2018 Toyota Prius Prime. Powertrain & Transmission issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 2 complaints (13.3% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 4 filings cite a crash, 2 report one or more injuries.
- • Total NHTSA Complaints: 15 reports
- • #1 Reported Problem Area: Powertrain & Transmission (2 reports • 13.3% of submitted complaints)
- • Secondary Problem Areas: Visibility, Wipers & Glass (2), Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (2)
- • Crash-Citing Complaints: 4 filings
- • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
- • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 2 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Most Reported Problems for 2018 Toyota Prius Prime
Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records
Powertrain & Transmission
Visibility, Wipers & Glass
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech
Air Bags & Restraints
Fuel & Propulsion System
Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2018 Toyota Prius Prime
Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
"On at least 4 occasions when the EV battery becomes depleted while driving at highway speeds and the car is switching to gas, the engine completely loses all power. This has lasted from 10-30 seconds. The dealership said a small battery needed to be replaced, and replaced that, but this recurred..."
"There has been at least 4 times that the vehicle was not responsive to acceleration (stalled for a few seconds) then picked back up. Problem has been intermittent. There is no dash indication of an issue. Because concern is intermittent I haven’t taken vehicle in. There is NO CHECK ENGINE light on...."
"Hi, My Prius Prime recently just suffered the loss of heat in the middle of winter. Based on the diagnostic of my local Toyota dealer, it appears one of the metal heater coolant hose had rusted off. This is not just causing a safety issue of having no issue, it is also a risk as the engine can now..."
"My 2018 Toyota Prius Supreme was parked too far away from the curb in front of a house where we were invited, in a residential area in Naperville IL. I entered the car to park it properly. I had my foot on the brakes and pressed the starting button for the engine to turn on. I then put the car on..."
"Airbags deployed prematurely as I was parking my car in a doctor's office parking lot. The car was going less than 5 mph and I did not hit anything. The premature deployment of the airbag startled me and caused me to hit the accelerator instead of the brake and I ended up crashing my car into a..."
Complaint History for Toyota Prius Prime
Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2017–2024)
| Model Year | NHTSA Complaints | Crash Reports | Safety Recalls | Detailed Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 Toyota Prius Prime | 143 | 20 | 0 | View 2017 Problems → |
| 2018 Toyota Prius Prime Current Page | 15 | 4 | 0 | Current |
| 2019 Toyota Prius Prime | 8 | 0 | 1 | View 2019 Problems → |
| 2020 Toyota Prius Prime | 16 | 5 | 1 | View 2020 Problems → |
| 2021 Toyota Prius Prime | 10 | 4 | 0 | View 2021 Problems → |
| 2022 Toyota Prius Prime | 8 | 3 | 1 | View 2022 Problems → |
| 2023 Toyota Prius Prime | 5 | 0 | 4 | View 2023 Problems → |
| 2024 Toyota Prius Prime | 11 | 1 | 4 | View 2024 Problems → |
Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2018 Toyota Prius Prime
Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 12 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications
| Vehicle Component / System | Total Complaints | Crash Reports | Fire Reports | Reported Injury Entries | Reported Fatality Entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BACK OVER PREVENTION,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| EXTERIOR LIGHTING | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA category: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| STRUCTURE,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Visibility / Glass NHTSA category: VISIBILITY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Visibility & Wipers NHTSA category: VISIBILITY/WIPER | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)
Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)
Pedestrian alert sounds
NHTSA received a petition on or about July 18, 2022, requesting that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 be applied to all electric and hybrid vehicles operating in the United States. The petition can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under ODI Number 11486072. FMVSS 141 establishes performance requirements for pedestrian alert sounds for motor vehicles. The standard applies to hybrid and electric vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight ra...
The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.
Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.