In October 2012, Toyota announced a recall of 7.43 million vehicles worldwide to fix malfunctioning power window switches, the largest recall since that of Ford Motor Company in 1996. The move came after a series of recalls between 2009 and 2011 in which it pulled back around 10 million cars amidst claims of faulty mechanics. In March 2014, Toyota agreed to pay a fine of US$1.2 billion for concealing information and misleading the public about the safety issues behind the recalls on Toyota and Lexus vehicles affected by unintended acceleration. Toyota never agreed to be at fault for the problem.
Lexus also has their own hybrid lineup, and as of August 2015, consist of the LS 600h/LS 600h L, GS 450h, RX 400h/RX 450h, Lexus HS 250h, Lexus CT 200h, Lexus ES 300h, Lexus IS 300h, Lexus NX 300h, and Lexus RC 300h. Global cumulative sales of Lexus brand hybrids reached the 500 thousand mark in November 2012. The 1 million sales milestone was achieved in March 2016. The Lexus RX 400h/RX 450h ranks as the top selling Lexus hybrid with 363,000 units delivered worldwide as of January 2017, followed by the Lexus CT 200h with 290,800 units, and the Lexus ES 300h with 143,200 units.
The production version of the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid was released in Japan in January 2012, followed by the United States in late February, and deliveries in Europe began in late June 2012. As of April 2016, global sales totaled 75,400 Prius PHVs since 2012, with North America as the leading regional market with 42,700 units, followed by Japan with about 22,100 units, Europe with 10,500 units, and only about 100 units in the rest of the world. The United States is the country market leader with 42,320 units delivered through April 2016. The leading European market is the Netherlands with 4,134 units registered as of 30 November 2015.
The Toyota RAV4 EV Concept was released in September 2012. The RAV4 EV was assembled at Toyota's facility in Woodstock, Ontario along with the regular gasoline version. Tesla built the electric powertrain at its plant at Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, and then shipped them to Canada. The RAV4 EV was sold only in California, beginning with the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County, and San Diego. Production was limited to 2,600 units during a three-year period. As of 31 December 2015, a total of 2,340 RAV4 EVs were sold in the U.S. to retail customers. Production ended in September 2014.
The U.S. launch of the Scion iQ EV was announced for 2012, and according to Toyota, for the initial roll-out the iQ EV would not be available to individual consumers, instead, the carmaker decided to focus on fleet customers and car sharing programs. The iQ EV was scheduled to be produced at Toyota's Takaoka Plant in Toyota City beginning in August 2012 and the initial production was planned to be limited to 600 units, with 400 staying in Japan, 100 units destined to the U.S., and the other 100 for Europe. In September 2012, Toyota announced that due to customers' concerns about range and charging time, the production of the Scion iQ (Toyota eQ in Japan) will be limited to about 100 units for special fleet use in Japan and the U.S. only. The iQ EV/eQ was scheduled to be released in both countries in December 2012.
In August 2012, Toyota announced its plans to start retail sales of a hydrogen fuel-cell sedan in California in 2015. Toyota expects to become a leader in this technology. The prototype of its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will be exhibited at the November 2013 Tokyo Motor Show, and in the United States at the January 2014 Consumer Electronics Show.