27 of the
229 complaints filed about the Hyundai Elantra Hybrid
are about the throttle and cruise control —
12% of everything owners reported.
The worst model year for it is 2021.
27
Complaints
12%
Share of all complaints
1
Crashes
0
Fires
Acceleration & Cruise Control complaints by model year
I was performing a low-speed maneuver to reverse-park into my driveway. After making a right turn between my driveway and the driveway of a neighboring townhouse across the street, I came to a complete stop. When I shifted the vehicle into reverse, the vehicle did not reverse as expected and instead unexpectedly accelerated forward. I applied the brake but was unable to stop the vehicle before it traveled forward into the driveway across the street and struck the garage door of a neighboring townhouse. The maneuver was being performed at low speed. Weather conditions were clear, and the driveway surface was dry. The cause of the unexpected acceleration is unknown at this time. No warning lights, messages, or alerts were observed prior to or during the incident. Immediately following the collision, I placed the vehicle into park and applied the parking brake, at which point the vehicle came to rest. Upon impact, the driver-side front airbag deployed. Smoke and a burning odor were observed coming from the deployed airbag. The incident posed a safety risk due to the vehicle’s unexpected forward movement during a low-speed maneuver and resulted in property damage. No injuries were reported. The vehicle remains available for inspection.
NHTSA complaint #11708433 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
On [XXX] and [XXX], while driving at approximately 50 MPH, my vehicle experienced a sudden and complete loss of power, presenting an immediate safety hazard. The incident unfolded as follows: Without warning, the car emitted an alarming sound from the cabin. Simultaneously, a message appeared on the dashboard stating "Check Hybrid System" and instructing me to "Pull Over Safely." This was the first and only warning; there were no prior indications or symptoms of any problem before this sudden failure. Immediately upon this warning, the vehicle experienced a total loss of power. The component that failed appears to be the hybrid system itself, leading to a complete electrical system shutdown. The vehicle is currently available for inspection upon request. After safely pulling over and turning off the car, all electrical functions ceased. This included essential safety features such as hazard lights, rendering the vehicle completely inoperable and "electrically dead." My safety and the safety of other motorists were severely put at risk due to the sudden and complete loss of propulsion and all electrical systems (including safety lights) while the vehicle was in motion. This left the vehicle vulnerable and invisible to other traffic, particularly concerning if this occurred on a highway or at night, as it creates a high risk for rear-end collisions or other accidents. I have personal video documentation of this incident, which clearly shows the dashboard warnings and the vehicle's subsequent electrical failure. I am prepared to share this video upon request. Following this alarming event, I took my vehicle to the Wolfchase Dealership in Memphis on May 16 2025. The problem has not been reproduced or confirmed by the dealership. Despite their inspection, the dealership claimed they could not find any issue, stating that "no system of record is recording such code in the vehicle. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11669196 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The cruise control function ceased to properly function after automatically increasing the speed to 110 mph. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. This is a safety risk for myself and for others on the road. If another combination with this fault were to occur (either physically to the driver or to the software), this could lead to an extreme hazard due to the potential for excessive speeds. The first occurrence for this vehicle happened on 4/21/2025; however, additional instances have been reported going back at least a year for other owners of this same model. Initial issue occurred while setting cruise control from 45 mph to 35 mph and then back to 45 mph. The last instance of 45 mph is when the cruise control quickly increased the set speed to 110 mph. The set speed could not be reduced after the issue occurred. This issue is difficult to reproduce, but will always occur after the first instance until the vehicle is restarted. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by the manufacturer. This is a known issue that has occurred for more than a year now. It appears to not be addressed due to the lack of reproducibility. However, when the software issue happens, it is continually reproducible until the vehicle is restarted. No other warning lamps or erroneous events occurred at the time of the software malfunction.
NHTSA complaint #11655984 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Sometimes when the cruise control is turned on the car starts the cruise setting at 110mph and then starts accelerating the vehicle to that speed. It does not allow the mph setting to be turned down using the controls on the steering wheel, the only way to take it out of the stuck 110 mph setting is by turning cruise control off or braking. This situation happens rarely but does occur with only the cruise control being turned on, without any further prompt. I have a video of the occurance but the website does not allow me to upload a video.
NHTSA complaint #11640896 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
We were on our way home from the beach on [XXX]. Coming through Birmingham on [XXX] in the far left (fast) lane traveling 78-80 mph with traffic flow, the car starts sounding a loud alarm with red flashing lights on the dashboard. The notification flashing said to “Check Hybrid system HEV BATTERY, Stop safely”. The car began to power down with no acceleration. I was unable to get across to the far-right lane to pull over, we had to just squeeze in between the concrete barrier and the cars flying by. Not to mention no flashers – nothing. The car is DEAD. We started to google hoping someone else had this issue and posted what we could do. There was a video for this exact issue stating to push a button on the left side of the dash that would reset the battery. We did that and it began to power back on. We rode in the far-right lane for the rest of the ride home, worried it would happen again. It did. On [XXX]., I was able to move over while it was powering down and get out of traffic. We received a notice from Hyundai around this time stating there were 3 recalls that needed to be fixed and one involved the HEV battery. We assumed it would fix this issue. We got another notice about 3 additional recalls (one also involved the HEV battery) and we called to get it scheduled but they were already booked out until Sept. So, we scheduled that appointment for the 2nd week in Sept. Fast forward a few weeks after making that appointment and after the recalls were done, it did it again 2 days in a row on my way home from work. One of these times it powered down and the only place to pull off was in a turning lane. The turning lane happened to be for oncoming traffic, but I thought I could hit the reset fast enough to be safe. It took a little longer than expected and I have many videos of this and cars were having to go around me to make their turn. I have one other I can go into more detail another way. We dropped the car at a dealership on 8/12 and have h INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
NHTSA complaint #11611209 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Vehicle has an unintended acceleration recall and I have experienced it a few times during the past few months. almost crashed into vehicle before me after the traffic stop.
NHTSA complaint #11593529 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Issue: manually setting cruise control to current speed (say 55mph) sets the cruise to 110mph . This has happened more than 10 times in 2 years of my ownership. This happens randomly and not possible to reproduced on-command. The dealers have refused to note this info and send it to Hyundai for investigation. Car accelerating to 110mph all of a sudden while you expect it to stay at your current speed can make one loose control of the vehicle, drive off the road if this happens near a sharp bend and potentially hitting other cars. This issue has definitely put the safety of me and other were put at risk. I believe this is a software issue and the dealers cant diagnose this on the spot. Hyundai does not seem to collect such non-reproducible complaints on their end which is really irresponsible.
NHTSA complaint #11589642 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
When gas is pressed (even to floor) in drive, vehicle stalls, does not accelerate. Then vehicle jerks into propulsion after revving. Other instances, at deceleration the car will jerk and shake to a stop. I have mentioned the problem at every scheduled maintenance
NHTSA complaint #11586175 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact had received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V589000 (Electrical System, Vehicle Speed Control) and the recall repair was completed by a dealer. The contact stated while driving at approximately 60 MPH with the cruise control activated, she momentarily disengaged the cruise control to slow for traffic. The contact stated that when the cruise control was re-engaged, the vehicle independently accelerated to almost 100 MPH. The contact was able to slow the vehicle by tapping the brake pedal. The contact stated the failure became a recurring failure. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The local dealer who completed the recall repair was contacted and informed the contact that there was no available appointment until December 16, 2023, for the vehicle to be serviced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 18,000.
NHTSA complaint #11556490 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated that while driving at highway speeds, the Forward Collision Avoidance: Automatic Emergency Braking brake light illuminated, and the vehicle experienced phantom braking, causing the tires to skid and the speed to abruptly decelerate. Moments later the Forward Collision Avoidance: Automatic Emergency Braking light turned off, and the vehicle operated normally. The failure had occurred on several occasions. Additionally, the vehicle had experienced unintended acceleration, causing the vehicle to lurch forward. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of failure. The failure mileage was 1,500.
NHTSA complaint #11552088 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
While driving down an interstate at approximately 58 miles per hour, I turned on the cruise control and went to adjust it to 65 miles per hour. The car rapidly accelerated and it appeared on the dash that the cruise control defaulted to 110 miles per hour, which appears to be the maximum on the system. I tried to turn the speed down, but the cruise control would not go below 110 miles per hour. I immediately deactivated cruise control and continued to drive at normal speed. I tried multiple times thereafter to set cruise control, and it would again, rapidly try to accelerate the car to 110 miles per hour and would not let me decrease the speed. After stopping at a rest stop, turning the car off and on and driving again, it appeared the glitch was fixed and I was able to operate the cruise control normally. Please note that the "adaptive" part of the cruise control, including steering assist/lane departure worked fine the entire time.
NHTSA complaint #11548907 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I turned on Cruise Control at 60 mph and it immediately set itself to 20 mph, braking fast to slow down quickly. This caused the car behind me to slam on his brakes so he would not rear end me. I tried increasing cruise control speed to no avail. I had to turn it off. Once I did not have any cars behind me, I tried once again so I could take a video and of course, it worked as it should. Not five minutes later, my radio turned the volume down to zero, all by itself. 20 minutes later, when I slowed to turn into a parking lot, my car lagged and acted as if it didn't have gas enough to go up a small incline. Pressing on the gas pedal didn't do very much but I made it up the incline and was able to park. I will be calling Hyundai Dealership tomorrow where I purchased the vehicle last year. I do not have any type of pictures or recordings as it just happened and it was a pretty scary event considering I was almost rear ended.
NHTSA complaint #11542784 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle independently accelerated to 110 MPH and seized at that speed. Additionally, the contact was unable to deactivate the feature. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was able to duplicate the failure; however, the dealer was unable to repair the vehicle. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50.
NHTSA complaint #11532097 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Horn has failed twice. The first time it was taken to the dealership and “fixed” - now it has failed again. The second issue is that the car accelerates on its own, both at a high and low rate of speed. While traveling at approximately 60 mph on multiple occasions, when the engine transitions from the electric motor to the gas engine, it will suddenly rapidly accelerate without any additional pressure on the gas pedal. While braking at a low rate of speed, the car seems to fight the brakes and will accelerate instead, propelling the car forward. This has almost caused multiple accidents. At the first occasion (Mar 2023), the dealer did a “transmission relearn” which mostly fixed the issue, but it has aggressively returned only 3 months later (one week ago) and is extremely dangerous. While trying to move to the side of the road and stop the car, the car continues the stop-go jerking/propelling forward and is nearly uncontrollable. The vehicle is currently at the dealership again and has not been diagnosed. On the first occasion they claimed they could not reproduce the issue. There is an open case with Hyundai regarding this. There were no warning lights or signals on the vehicle.
NHTSA complaint #11530328 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I was driving on a 40mph speed road at 45 mph and the car stopped accelerating abruptly and remained stuck at 20 mph even thou my foot was on the gas pedal. I had to put the caution lights on and get to the side of the road. I had every car behind me honk and yell when passing by. This could have been a big crash. I have the video of this when I was driving. This happened various times, in December, Feb and last week.
NHTSA complaint #11525448 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The Cruise Control will automatically set itself to either 20mph or 120mph when engaging it as usual. This happens with no common circumstances that I can see, but as it has happened over 10 times and I have only had the brand new car since Aug 31 2022 and the dealership does not seem concerned about it, I though I should report it to you. It HAS put both myself and others at risk, as the first time it happened, the car began to accelerate as fast as possible and the digital readout on the dashboard had the Cruise Control set for 120 mph and I almost ran into the car ahead of me. I have taken it to Schomp Hyundai in Aurora, CO and they were unable to reproduce the issue and no codes came up, with the exception of the LKA, which they did not deem a problem. This happens regularly and the only recourse is to pull over and restart the car. This first occurred around 20,000 miles and continues to happen without any rhyme or reason and makes me feel unsafe in my first brand new car. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope if this is happening to others, that Hyundai will be made aware of it and remedy the problem before someone get seriously hurt.
NHTSA complaint #11517877 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Car will accelerate when pressing on brakes. Once car is able to turn off, the problem does not repeat. This has occurred at least 3 times with the same car and random times while on the road. Dealership is unable to replicate the brake issue every time the car is brought in.
NHTSA complaint #11516987 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Sometimes upon depressing the accelerator the engine does not respond. The car does not move in a traffic situation. Putting the car in park, shutting it down and restarting makes it go away for a while. Getting on and off the highway is especially dangerous. This has happened intermittently for the past 1-1/2 years. The dealer says that they cannot reproduce the problem. So, they cannot repair it.
NHTSA complaint #11512047 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
While driving in stop and go traffic this morning (02/06/2023), at approximately 8:45 am, my Hyundai Elantra began accelerating on it's own. I applied the brakes and the car behaved as though I slammed on the brakes. The acceleration and braking issues happened multiple times during this drive. After the first incident, I shifted the car into neutral, (when it happened subsequently) until it quit accelerating, which was a couple of seconds. I have scheduled service at the Hyundai dealer for tomorrow morning (02/27/2023)
NHTSA complaint #11505880 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.