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Honda · NHTSA safety record

2021 Honda Accord Hybrid

Every safety complaint, recall and defect investigation the US government holds on this vehicle.

Owners have filed 48 safety complaints about the 2021 Honda Accord Hybrid with the US government. Of those, 2 describe a crash and no death is recorded. 3 recall campaigns are open against it, covering the air bags and the seat belts.

The most complained-about system is forward collision avoidance, named in 12 complaints, 25% of the total. The typical failure was reported at 38,000 miles, the median across the 5 complaints that gave an odometer reading.

Compiled from NHTSA's complaint, recall and investigation files · Covers August 2021 to August 2026 · How this is counted

What is on file

48 complaints on file

48

Complaints

2

Describe a crash

0

Mention fire

0

People injured

0

Deaths

A complaint is an unverified account by the person who filed it, not a finding of fault. One complaint is one ODI number, which is how NHTSA counts them.

Complaints halved year on year: 8 in the twelve months to 2026-Q2, against 16 in the twelve before.

A recall is the manufacturer conceding a defect, and the repair is free. Whether one covers your particular car is a question only its VIN can answer, because a campaign covers a production range rather than a model year. A further 1 defect investigation is open and unresolved.

Which system owners named

Complaints naming each system
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 12 · 25%
ENGINE 10 · 21%
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 10 · 21%
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 8 · 17%
AIR BAGS 5 · 10%
SERVICE BRAKES 4 · 8%
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 3 · 6%
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 3 · 6%
SEATS 2 · 4%
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 1 · 2%
LANE DEPARTURE 1 · 2%
SEAT BELTS 1 · 2%
0 8 15

Red marks a system with a recall campaign against it. One complaint can name several systems, so these add up to more than 48.

When the complaints arrived

By the year NHTSA received them

By the year NHTSA received them, which is not the year the failures happened. They peaked in 2025 at 18.

20 15 10 5
21 22 23 24 25 26

This is the year the complaint was filed, not the year the failure happened. The range runs from 2021 to 2026, the last of them a part year, which is why its column is drawn faint.

Crash test ratings

NHTSA New Car Assessment Program

NHTSA crashes a car into a barrier and a pole and measures what happens to the dummies inside. This is what it awarded the 2021 Honda ACCORD HYBRID, and it is a separate question from what owners report going wrong later.

Test 4 DR FWD
Overall
Frontal crash
Frontal, driver
Frontal, passenger
Side crash
Side barrier
Side pole
Rollover
Chance of rollover 9.3%
Stability control standard Forward collision warning standard Lane departure warning standard

A dash means NHTSA did not rate that test for this vehicle.

Recall campaigns

3 on file

AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:FRONT PASSENGER

26V332000 · May 21, 2026

The defect
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2018-2021, 2023 Acura TLX, 2019-2024 RDX, 2017-2020, 2022-2026 MDX, 2017-2021, 2023, 2025 Honda Ridgeline, 2017-2022 Pilot, 2019-2021 Passport, 2018-2026 Odyssey, 2019-2022 Insight, 2019-2021 HR-V, 2018-2020 Fit, 2020-2022 CR-V Hybrid, 2017-2022 CR-V, 2017-2018, 2021 Civic Type R, 2017-2021 Civic hatchback, 2016-2020 Civic coupe, 2016-2022 Civic, 2017-2022 Accord Hybrid, and 2016-2022 Accord vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, which can cause the air bags to deploy unintentionally during a crash.
The risk
Air bags that deploy unintentionally during a crash increase the risk of injury.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed July 7, 2026. Owners may contact Honda's customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are BOL, WO9, OOA, WOM, XOH, NOC, POD, BOE, UOF, POB, EOG, AOI, QO8, TOJ, DO7, and SOK. This recall expands previous NHTSA recall number 24V064. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning May 29, 2026.

Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) · up to 98,892 vehicles across all model years covered

AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:FRONT PASSENGER

24V064000 · February 1, 2024

The defect
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Pilot, Accord, Civic sedan, HR-V, Odyssey, 2020 Civic coupe, Fit, 2021-2022 Civic hatchback, 2021 Civic Type R, Insight, 2020-2021 CR-V, CR-V Hybrid, Passport, Ridgeline, Accord Hybrid, 2020 Acura MDX, 2022 Acura MDX, 2020-2022 Acura RDX, and 2020-2021 Acura TLX vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, failing to suppress the air bag as intended.
The risk
An air bag that deploys unintentionally during a crash can increase the risk of injury.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 28, 2024. This is a phased recall. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for these recalls are XHP and VHQ.

Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) · up to 750,114 vehicles across all model years covered

SEAT BELTS:REAR/OTHER:RETRACTOR

21V900000 · November 18, 2021

The defect
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2021 Accord Sedan, Accord Hybrid, CR-V, Ridgeline, 2022 Insight and CR-V Hybrid vehicles. The automatic locking retractor on the second-row center seat belt assembly may deactivate improperly, which can result in an unsecured child restraint system. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."
The risk
An unsecured child restraint system can increase the risk of injury during a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the second-row center seat belt assembly, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 14, 2022. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138.

Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) · up to 4,346 vehicles across all model years covered

Defect investigations

2 on file

An investigation means NHTSA has decided a pattern is worth examining. A preliminary evaluation is often closed with no action; an engineering analysis is the stage that usually precedes a recall.

Inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking

EA24002

Still open engineering analysis · opened April 15, 2024

forward collision avoidance

On February 21, 2022, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened Preliminary Evaluation (PE22003) to assess reports of inadvertent activation of the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), an automatic emergency braking (AEB) system, in model year 2017-2019 Honda CR-V and 2018-2019 Honda Accord vehicles.  The reports allege that activation of the AEB system occurs while driving with no apparent obstruction in the vehicle's forward path, resulting in sudden vehicle deceleration. Honda indicated that they were aware of a total of X,XXX reports that may relate to the alleged defect. Honda provided analysis of the alleged defect and alleges that some customers possibly had an inadequate understanding of the CMBS and its limitations.  However, many consumer complaints allege that Honda dealerships were unable to reproduce the condition or state that they were informed that this is considered normal CMBS operation. To date, ODI has received a total of 1,294 consumer complaints of inadvertent activation of CMBS in 2017-2022 Honda CR-V and 2018-2022 Honda Accord vehicles. A total of 31 complaints alleged a crash and 50 alleged an injury.  The Total column in the Failure Report Summary removes duplicate reports and shows the total number of reports with unique VINs from all Manufacturer, ODI, and EWR data sources.  In some cases, there were multiple reports associated with a particular vehicle in which recurring failures were alleged.  In total, there were X,XXX reports, 93 injury incidents and 47 crashes involving vehicles with unique VINs that may relate to the alleged defect. PE22-003 has been upgraded to an Engineering Analysis to further assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety related consequences of the inadvertent AEB activations. The scope has been expanded to include assessment of model year 2020-2022 Honda CR-V and Accord vehicles. To review the ODI reports cited in the Opening Resume ODI Report Identification Number document, go to NHTSA.gov.

Pedestrian alert sounds

DP22005

Closed defect petition · opened January 27, 2023 · closed August 7, 2023 · led to recall 22V063000

the electrical system

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 rating of 4,536 KG or less or are defined as low-speed vehicles. The standard became fully applicable to all such vehicles manufactured on or after March 1, 2021.On January 27, 2023, NHTSA opened Defect Petition (DP) 22-005 to evaluate the subject matter described in the petition. On June 24, 2023 and as supplemented on June 25, 2023, the petitioner notified NHTSA he was withdrawing his petition. The petitioner indicated that, based on his review of data, there is no justification for asserting potential benefits that could be derived from actions sought by my petition. Based on the petitioner's withdrawal, DP22-005 is closed. Closure of this DP does not represent a determination by NHTSA regarding the subject matter of the petition.

In owners’ own words

Quoted from the complaint file

Quoted from NHTSA's complaint file. These are unverified accounts by the people who filed them, not findings of fault.

AIR BAGS

crash · towed

Upon pulling into a parking space, with the steering wheel almost at full lock to the right, when I braked, the car suddenly accelerated out of control and hit another car. Airbags did not deploy but there was damage to both vehicles, no injuries. Vehicle has been taken to a collision repair shop to await repair. It is available for inspection. Has not been looked at to date.

NHTSA complaint 11443037. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

SERVICE BRAKES

crash · towed

Breaks failed causing vehicle accident [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA complaint 11621352. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Most recent incidents on Friday 08/07 car lost power while driving on freeway unable to accelerate, all engine/warning lights came on was thankfully able to pullover and shut off vehicle. This is not first incident this also happened about 5x in 2025 and had car inspected and serviced by Honda dealership each time being told they didn’t know what the issue is because the engine light wasn’t on at time of appointments. Final visit resulting in them adjusting the intake valves but they were even unsure if this was the correct “fix” well it did last a year without other incidents until recently, there seems to be a recall on 2023+ models but not my 2021 and this seems like may be similar

NHTSA complaint 11757064, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ENGINE
My vehicle is currently suffering a failed head gasket. I was alerted about this issue from local mechanics and friends way before it actually happened. I took it to services and regular maintenance even more frequently after that. However, it still failed no matter what. I took it to the dealership, they even admitted that this is a known problem for this generation of vehicle. They still proceeded to ask nearly $7000 to fix it, saying that even though this is a known issue, there was no recalls on the vehicles so they could not waive or deduct the fees.

NHTSA complaint 11721881. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
I purchased my vehicle in March 25th 2024 a message on my dashboard saying engine is too hot so in August of this year I took it to the shop for a diagnosis test and they told me that the car didn’t run hot when they drove it so again in October 10th I was driving home and my car lost power on the freeway so I pulled over and then all my lights on the dashboard came on so I took it to the shop on October 13th and they told me that my head gasket was faulty and my coolant system was faulty. To me a major problem should have not happened within a years time and I had my maintenance done on my car like I should have.

NHTSA complaint 11696661. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

SEAT BELTS
I received an initial Honda recall notice on March 2024 regarding a recall and have been trying to reach out Honda dealership to get updates on the parts but they always say its on backorder and they even do not have an option for us to order the parts or place us in que for the next order. Would like to bring this to NHTSA attention and get some help with it.

NHTSA complaint 11691029. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Occasionally the touch screen will have phantom touches and start randomly acting like it was clicked in random parts. This makes it do random things like switch from navigation to radio to calling random numbers. While driving this is especially distracting and poses a safety hazard. The issue is reported many times online and seems to be common especially when they temperature outside is above 70 degrees.The only solution from Honda seems to be to pay to replace the screen but it’s not a true fix as it can happen again.

NHTSA complaint 11686473. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The screen randomly freezes or toggles between different screen without user input. It will randomly exit navigaton, end calls, increase volume, etc. This happens irrespective of day or night and whether I am using Android Auto of the factory navigation. Several times it has ended navigaton while driving cause me to have to pull over to avoid going in the wrong direction or missing turns. The system has also had its software updated the, factory reset and software reset with no improvement in the situation.

NHTSA complaint 11685477. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Compare

Other years of the Honda Accord Hybrid

Model year Complaints Recalls Deaths
2025 23 2 —
2024 76 4 —
2023 140 6 —
2022 54 1 —
2020 39 5 1
2019 94 5 —
2018 115 4 —
2017 45 2 —
2015 39 1 —
2014 24 1 —

Other 2021 Honda models

Pilot 436 CR-V 331 Accord 234 Civic 145 Odyssey 142 Passport 142 CR-V Hybrid 104 Ridgeline 101

Complaints on file, same model year.

Every Honda on this site — 192 vehicles.

If this is your car and a dealer keeps failing to fix it, your state's lemon law may require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. How many repair attempts it takes, and how long you have to file, is set by the state you bought in and by nothing on this page.

Where these numbers come from

A complaint is one owner's account and has not been verified by NHTSA or by us. A vehicle with more complaints is not necessarily worse: models that sold in larger numbers collect more of them. How this is counted.

Compiled and maintained by
Independent developer and analyst