NHTSA complaint #11765145

Owner complaint summary

Post the 68c recall the acceleration profile of the vehicle is inconsistent and at times significantly delayed. To the point where when making left hand turns or merging into freeway traffic becomes dangerous. One specific instance while making a left I started to go but the accelerstion was extremely slow. Pressing the pedal nearly all the way down with traffic bearing down in me the enging finally kicked in at nearly full throttle. Causing a very chaotic turn. This is particularly noticeable while driving in electric mode, and usually shows up after driving for a little while. However I have had it happen very shortly after starting a drive. It does seem to be related to either battery or motor temperature, but it is very inconsistent. Typically when it does happen you try to accelerate and the normal response of acceleration doesn't occur. You keep pressing the pedal until it is nearly all the way to floor before the engine kicks in and suddenly is floored and you get more acceleration than you were trying to get. Not necessarily a safety issue, but further evidence that battery or electric power has been restricted. Since the 68c recall my fuel economy has reduced a out 8 mi/gal. I make the same road trips on a regular basis and the same trip prior to the 68c recall I got nearly 100mi more per tank of gas. It seems the battery charging and electric assist has been retarded from the original performance. Again this is more dramatic in all electric and causes precarious situations as described above. There are no warning lights or error messages, the dealer either can't reproduce the issue or calls it normal operation. I have over 90k miles on my vehicle and it is only the 10k or so since the 68c recall that I have noticed this issue. It is not performing "normally".