2023 HYUNDAI SANTA FE HYBRID Fuel/propulsion System Problems

One two separate occasions while driving the car has lost the ability to accelerate. There is no acceleration power even when completely flooring the gas pedal. The dash displays a red circle warming that states "Check Hybrid system. Stop Safely". I have had to coast to the side of the road and then the car shuts off. It has taken several minutes before it can start again, and then displays a warning "Park with engine On to charge battery" before being able to shift the car into drive. I immediately took the vehicle to the dealership at which I had purchased the car. They have run a diagnostic on it and did not find any error codes stored in the computer. I picked up the vehicle from them and immediately upon pulling out of their lot it happened again. After losing power, coasting to the side of the road, and waiting for the engine to be able to restart I took it immediately back to the dealership. They have had my car for 5 weeks and cannot diagnose the problem or offer any recommendations for repairs.

The vehicle will not accelerate and comes to a complete stop while driving. Within days, it displayed ‘Check Hybrid System. Stop safely’ and lost propulsion while driving.

I am reporting a serious and recurring safety defect with my 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid, purchased new in January 2024. The vehicle has suffered from over 30–40 sudden hybrid system failures, including loss of acceleration, “Stop Vehicle” warnings, and check engine lights. These incidents happen without warning, including while driving at legal speeds (40–70 mph), on residential streets and highways. Most recently, the car failed twice in two days, while my teenage son was driving within all road laws, including once with a friend in the car. The vehicle simply stopped accelerating in the middle of traffic, endangering them and everyone around them. These failures have happened at legal speeds ranging from 40–70 mph, on both residential roads and highways. There is no advance warning, just abrupt loss of power and sudden warning messages. We’ve taken the vehicle to the South Charlotte Hyundai dealership multiple times. Each time, they either reset the check engine light or replaced indicators: but never addressed the root hybrid system failure. We filed a lemon law case, and Hyundai responded with only a $2,000 offer including legal fees, requiring us to keep the dangerous vehicle. We rejected the offer. These failures have occurred with children and passengers in the car. We have documented as many incidents as we could, including photos, service records, and communication with Hyundai. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. I no longer feel safe driving or allowing my family to drive this car. This is a critical hybrid system failure that continues to place lives at risk. I believe this may be part of a wider pattern affecting Hyundai hybrid vehicles, and I am pleading with the NHTSA to open an investigation before someone is seriously injured or worse.

I purchased a 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid in November of 2023. Within a couple of months of purchase I had 2 incidents where without warning the car lost power and made a noise sounding like some sort of fan. One of the incidents was on [XXX] in Massachusetts, the heavy traffic cleared, I was in the fast lane, and the car would barely move. It was a safety issue as there was no place to go on the left side of the highway and traffic to my right had already picked up speed. After a minute or so the power again became available. This has happened to me several times but Hyundai has told me there is NO RECORD of this happening with my car model. On occasion I have my grandkids in the car and I am very concerned that Hyundai will not acknowledge this problem. By the way, it happened again this morning as I was pulling away from a Starbucks drive-up window. Can something be done about this? Hyundai should have records of my complaints as I visited the dealership where I bought the care and conversed via email with one of their service representatives that I do have a record of. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Twice, the car refused to switch from EV mode back to gas mode. This resulted in the hybrid battery dying and the car losing power. The first time, I was merging onto the freeway and the gas pedal was all the way at the floor, but I was only maintaining speed (not accelerating). Both times, the car was driveable for approximately one mile on the hybrid battery alone. However, a warning came on the dash, “Check hybrid system. Stop safely.” The second time, I was able to pull into a parking lot before the hybrid battery died. The next day, I was able to drive the car normally. The dealership is unable to pull any codes or replicate the issue. Unfortunately, it only happens intermittently and we have not identified a common theme for the failure.

I am afraid of getting myself or someone else killed because there is a 1-2 second lag after stepping on the gas pedal after coming to a stop. This is extremely dangerous. My street empties onto a county road with a blind curve. I have had several instances when the delay between the car moving after I’ve stepped on the gas has lead to oncoming cars needing to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting me. I even called the county and asked that they put up a “dangerous curve sign. They put up a squiggly arrow instead which has not helped. My previous gas vehicles made this turn safely for 20 years. My nephew told me it’s a new feature in cars called “stop and gol meant to save gas. I think saving my life is more important than saving a little bit of gas. It happens all the time so I will put todays date in the space below.

When I start driving the car if I come up to a hill when I try to accelerate to move forward the cars engine cuts out almost like it stalls. I have to floor or pump the gas which makes a revving sound and the car will go.

The engine/ability to accelerate seemed to fail. It would not accelerate past 45mph and then couldn't even maintain that speed, even with the pedal to the floor. The engine sounded like it was revving at high RPMs and wasn't shifting into gear, even though it had just been in drive and operating normally. Yes, it is available for inspection. My safety was put at risk by not being able to accelerate when merging onto the highway, leading me to be going much slower than the traffic around me. I have not asked the dealer to reproduce the problem. The component has not been inspected. There were no warning signs, messages, or alerts of any kind. There was no information about the status of the car whatsoever.

Check engine light and HEV warning light come on and vehicle looses all power. It has been confirmed by myrtle beach Hyundai also they tried fixing the problem gave me back car supposedly fixed just to have same problem within 24 hours.The problem started later part of April and is still ongoing vehicle has been towed 3 times so far.My concern is what happens if I loose all power while driving.

This is related to Complaint Number 11526621 filed June 13, '23. Today I experienced the same issue described in my previous complaint but under different circumstances. I was at an intersection of two 2-lane highways, one going east-west and the other going north-south, and was facing oncoming traffic as I waited for a gap in the oncoming traffic that would allow me to make the left turn. Once a gap appeared (perhaps 4 or 5 car lengths long), I pressed the accelerator to turn left but there was zero propulsion for about 2 seconds. I was simply stalled in the path of the oncoming traffic. At the end of the 2 second delay, as the vehicle transitioned from EV (electric) to internal combustion (gasoline) mode of propulsion, my vehicle GRADUALLY accelerated just enough to allow me to complete the turn; however, I came very close to being broadsided by the oncoming traffic. This is a dangerous fault of the 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid vehicle and needs to be addressed asap! There is obviously something wrong with the EV/internal combustion synchronization/communication causing the momentary loss of power!

The issue I'm about to describe has occurred multiple times during the seven (7) months I've owned the vehicle - including again today. In all cases, I was attempting gradual acceleration to merge onto a highway or high-traffic street (e.g., when exiting a mall parking lot onto a busy city street). When I press the accelerator nothing happens - NO power whatsoever for at least two seconds! And on three of these occasions, I was almost broadsided by oncoming high-speed traffic! I've reported this issue to my dealership (both sales and service) and their response was that this is a known problem with the Hyundai hybrid models BUT that there is NO fix available nor, to the best of their knowledge, is there one in the process of being developed! As stated above, there is sometimes as much as a 2-second delay from when stepping on the accelerator (even when fully depressing) to when the vehicle slowly starts to accelerate. And there are no warning lights to indicate that there is a problem. I've observed that in all cases when this issue occurs, it does so when the power train is transitioning from the EV (electric) mode to the internal combustion mode of propulsion. This should NOT be a difficult issue for Hyundai to resolve and should be addressed with utmost urgency before someone is seriously injured or killed! NHTSA - please intervene by directing Hyundai to launch an immediate recall campaign to resolve this very dangerous issue, or offer to refund the affected owners' purchase price!

Car has a SEVERE Life threatening Hesitation, sometimes as much as almost 2 seconds delay from when you fully step on the accelerator to when it slowly starts to go. No warning lights or bells whatsoever. Regardless of driving mode it dose it. Seems to be especially pronounced when at a dead stop in sport mode. Problem seems to have gotten progressively worse the more we have driven it. The Dealership is denying that there's any problem or issue & didn't want to make an appointment to look at it & keeps trying to tell me this is normal. Car is unsafe to drive like this & has nearly gotten me & my family killed on numerous occasions. I have driven other hybrids by other manufacturers & none have had this issue.