Hyundai Recalls 37,901 Veloster and Kona Electric Over Airbag Fault

Hyundai has recalled 37,901 vehicles because a software problem can switch off the airbags, according to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), as relayed by Repairer Driven News. A disabled system may fail to inflate the airbags in a crash, which raises the risk of injury to people inside.

The recall covers 2019-2022 Hyundai Veloster and 2019-2023 Hyundai Kona Electric models. Owners will get a software update at a Hyundai dealer, and the remedy is free for every affected vehicle.

What goes wrong inside the airbag control unit

The vehicles use an Airbag Control Unit (ACU), the module that reads crash signals and tells the airbags and seat belt pretensioners to fire. According to the recall report, data can become corrupted while the unit writes to its memory during routine operation under certain driving conditions. When that happens, the airbag warning light comes on and the airbag system turns itself off.

The report says a system reboot or a power interruption during a memory write can cause the corruption.

How Hyundai reached the recall decision

Hyundai opened an investigation in August 2024 after seeing more warranty claims for airbag warning lights. It worked with ZF Group, which supplies the ACU, on technical reviews of recovered parts, looking at fault-detection conditions and ways to reproduce the failure. The two companies also ran electrical stress tests and several vehicle-level replication tests in 2025.

By October 2026, Hyundai was updating its field data analysis and preparing its findings for review by its North America Safety Decision Authority. After that review the company decided on a safety recall.

As of November, Hyundai knew of 331 unique incidents reported from October 2019 through September of this year. The report states that no crashes, fires or injuries have been connected to the condition.

Why it matters for owners

An owner whose airbag warning light is on may be driving with a system that will not deploy. Owners of the listed Veloster and Kona Electric years can enter a VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls to see whether their car is part of this recall. The software update is performed free of charge at a franchised Hyundai dealer.

The recall arrives as NHTSA works on a broader problem: many owners never complete repairs. NHTSA oversaw nearly 900 vehicle safety recalls affecting more than 29 million vehicles last year, and its data shows a completion rate of 68% for 3-year-old vehicles and 18% for 15-year-old vehicles.

NHTSA puts $1.5 million toward open recalls at registration

Last week NHTSA said it will invest $1.5 million to help states raise recall completion rates. Administrator Jonathan Morrison said an open recall “creates an avoidable hazard” on roads. The money is meant to help states build a reliable way to tell owners about open recalls when they register a vehicle, use data to measure completions, and publish reports on their methods so other states can copy them.

Morrison announced the funding at an event called “Recalls Next: Technological Innovation & Safety Recalls.” He said the Takata airbag recalls showed that getting people to act is hard. Researchers found some owners were confused about what a recall meant or did not remember getting the notice. He also cited surveys in which about four in 10 owners named inconvenience as a main reason for skipping a recall.

State motor vehicle agencies have helped, Morrison said. During the Takata recall, letters from a DMV sometimes produced repair rates two to three times higher than manufacturer notices alone. A collaboration with Virginia’s EZPass toll system produced Takata completion rates eight to 10 times higher than comparable methods. Work with a vehicle auction company led to repairs on about 90% of traded-in vehicles that had open recalls, he said.

What to watch next

NHTSA has also launched a bulk VIN lookup tool that checks up to 100 VINs at once for open recalls, aimed at dealerships, fleet operators and others who manage many vehicles. The agency has opened a public docket for feedback on recalls, and comments are accepted through Dec. 5.

Source: Repairer Driven News