Home · 2021 Honda Accord Fhev · Complaints

What 217 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Honda Accord Fhev

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (217)Crash / fire / injury (16)Driver assistance (58)Electrical system (54)Engine (30)Brakes (25)Airbags (14)Fuel system (14)Lane Departure (14)Transmission & drivetrain (11)Steering (8)Speed control (7)

58 of 217 complaints match · Driver assistance · clear filters · page 2 of 3

Apr 18, 2024Driver assistance

I was driving 40 mph and slowed down gradually pressing my brake due to a car making a right turn. As I'm slowing down to probably 15mph, the brakes wording shows on the odometer display. i had plenty of room between the turning right car but suddenly the car automatically stops while I'm in the lane. I could of got hit if there was a car behind me. This is the 1st time it has happen. I've seen the brake wording show up a few times while driving but this is the 1st time the car stopped on it's own. Currently researching on how to turn off the brake assist for the car. (This is a safety issue for other Accord owners)(purchased car DEC 2023)

NHTSA ODI 11583759

Apr 18, 2024Driver assistance

I was driving down the highway at approximately 70 mph and a vehicle ahead, probably 8-10 car lengths lightly applied their brakes slowing down to my estimate of 60 mph. The forward collision activated and slammed my brakes causing a pickup behind me to slam on their brakes and swerve onto the shoulder to avoid a collision. This is not the first time this has happened, but the previous time the braking wasn't as severe.

NHTSA ODI 11583746

Apr 17, 2024Driver assistanceCrash

I was traveling on interstate 10 going around 50mph with a safe distance from the traffic in front of me. The car in front of me did break but then sped off immediately. My car's automatic emergency breaking system engaged very aggressively and unnecessarily (a front end impact was not imminent if my car had not braked). I tried to accelerate but I had no control over it. The sudden breaking caused my car to slow so rapidly that the freightliner behind me did not have time to react, causing him to rear end my car. The car was totaled as a result. I have front and rear dash camera footage showing all of this. ***I marked a document as the police report to proceed but I do not have a copy of the police report. This is not provided unless ordered***

NHTSA ODI 11583608

Mar 22, 2024Lane DepartureDriver assistance

--Automatic braking: When I first purchased car in 2021, the automatic emergency braking engaged abruptly 3 times within the first 3000 miles of driving the car. I was unable to get a resolution through dealer, local Honda service centers or Honda corp. I turn off the feature each time I start my car, but I'm told by Honda service that there is no way to disable feature to prevent safety hazard. --Lane Keeping Assistance: Since purchasing car in 2021, my lane keeping assistance does not work properly and pretty often will actually try to pull the car out of lane both on local roads and more often on the interstate. I have the feature disabled for safety.

NHTSA ODI 11578837

Mar 8, 2024Driver assistance

While driving on an open road with no cars around, the emergency braking suddenly engaged causing the car to come to an almost complete stop by itself.

NHTSA ODI 11576135

Dec 28, 2023Driver assistance

At speed limit cruising down I66. I was all alone. No birds in area at all. Open road. I was in middle lanes. Car attempted to come to a complete stop by itself. “Phantom Braking”? All my friends with Honda’s and Acura’s mentioned similar issues. If anyone was behind me, I could have caused a pile up or even worse. It’s happened a few times. Took to Capitol Heights Honda and Landmark Honda. They ran diagnostics. Explained to me there were no error codes. I explained to them, if system has a fault, it thinks it’s operating properly. So, no errors would appear! I have experience and education in computer programming (College), mechanical and electronic (US Army) and over 30 electromechanical troubleshooting, repair and maintenance and other IT experience. SME After they haven’t been able to do anything about it, I turn off all safely systems. I drive a lot. So, I’m also a very good driver. Have almost 65k miles on my vehicle. Date of incident below was when I forgot to turn off sensor. But it happened a few times before and I brought to Honda after first two times. I even had to rent a car at my expense.

NHTSA ODI 11562475

Nov 25, 2023Driver assistance

My family and I were driving home to LA from NM. I had been using the cruise and steer assist earlier in the drive but had it off after going through a metro area interstate. There was no vehicles within the cars front camera system when while driving 75 mph( that was the sped limit in TX), the cars braking system engaged with a hard break, no “brake” light flash of rapid break pumps as it would do if something was within the camera range. I was able to get in slow lane and within 30 secs it did it again. I was able to drive another hour with no issue but stayed under 65mph. We are 7 hours away from home and will be getting it to the dealership. This could have caused a major wreck.

NHTSA ODI 11556806

Oct 17, 2023Driver assistanceCrash1 injury

A vehicle in front of me made a quick slow down. The automatic braking engaged, the driver behind me did not react in time and struck the back of my car. Resulting in totaling of the vehicle. The automatic braking would not stop engaging, if it would have dis-engaged I could of pulled forward a few feet and the driver behind me would of missed me.

NHTSA ODI 11550519

Jun 18, 2023Driver assistance

Honda accord breaks unexpectedly for no reason. It’s an automatic break or slow down without us pressing the break. The car has an automatic emergency break system and it seems to break when nothing is I front of us. Happens many times and dealer can’t figure out what is wrong. They tell us car is running well.

NHTSA ODI 11527601

Jun 13, 2023Electrical systemBrakesDriver assistance

I was driving home in the rain and felt the car automatically braking when there was no car or object in front of me. The car was also slow to accelerate because the brakes were automatically applied. 5 miles later numerous warnings appeared on the dash and the following error messages came through my Hondalink app: Electric Parking Brake Problem, CMBS Problem, Adaptive Cruise Control Problem, and RDM Problem. Several times during this drive home the brakes automatically applied without any intervention from me or roadway object. I almost got rear-ended once when a car behind me had to slam on its brake when my car automatically braked without me doing anything. This is a very dangerous condition that should be looked further into as multiple drivers have reported brakes being applied without driver intervention or an apparent road hazard. How many complaints will it take before a recall is issued so other Honda drivers do not need to be put at risk?

NHTSA ODI 11526779

Jun 9, 2023Driver assistance

I was driving on the freeway going 65mph when the automatic safety brake system slowed my car down abruptly for no reason at all. Luckily there wasn’t any other vehicles anywhere near me or it would have caused an accident. This wasn’t the only time the safety system activated without reason either. It also happened two other times in similar situations.

NHTSA ODI 11526149

May 18, 2023Driver assistance

The collision mitigation brake system continues to come off, and today it made my car spin, and I almost crash into the media.

NHTSA ODI 11522745

May 5, 2023Speed controlDriver assistance

The contact owns a 2021 Honda Accord. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 35 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently decelerated. The contact veered off the roadway. The contact then stated that she carefully drove the vehicle to her residence. Additionally, the contact added that on a separate occasion while the accelerator pedal was depressed, the vehicle inadvertently jerked without the brake pedal depressed. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 17,000.

NHTSA ODI 11520679

Apr 6, 2023Driver assistanceCrash

1.Driving on a straight road at about 45-50 MPH sudden abrupt braking for no reason . 2. Good thing I was wearing a seat belt , it was a very forceful brake action that pushed me forcefully forward, I was struck from behind by another vehicle. Visial minor damage to the rear bumper cover. 3. No it happened today 4-5-23 I plan on calling the dealer tomorrow. 4. The BRAKE message appeared at the exact time of the incident.

NHTSA ODI 11515726

Mar 19, 2023BrakesDriver assistance

The electrical emergency brake locked up without warning as I was coming off the highway by the way of off ramp. Almost put the car in the guard rails! Brake has locked up twice now

NHTSA ODI 11512710

Feb 17, 2023Electrical systemDriver assistance

I was driving my 21 Honda Accord 1.5T on the highway and all of a sudden vehicle lost the power and Honda sensing / Emission warning lights came on. It almost cause a major accident and I was lucky enough to exit the freeway without incident. I drove to the Honda dealer and they found out one of the wire harnesses was chewed by a rodent which causes the whole issue. I did some research and found out that Honda was using less expensive Soybean base wire harnesses (instead of Petroleum base wire harnesses) to save the planet earth. This Soybean wires are easy target for rodents. This less expensive Soybean wire harness cost about $3000-3500 to replace and it's NOT fair to the consumer. Honda must re-call this Soybean wire harness before causing some major accident, especially on the freeway ( imaging your car losing power while driving 65-70 mph)

NHTSA ODI 11507883

Feb 10, 2023Driver assistance

Automatic emergency breaking system has benn activated in about 6 different ocassions while driving in the highway for no reason. No vehicles or obstacles in front of the car but car suddenly applied brakes stopping the car very suddenly while driving 70-75 miles per hour.

NHTSA ODI 11506660

Feb 7, 2023Driver assistance

in the last 10 days, we there's been 4 incidents where the vehicle suddenly brakes when travelling on high speeds on the freeway out of nowhere. We were almost involved in a serious car accident yesterday where a vehicle behind us narrowly got out of the way. Took vehicle to honda dealership service and they claim they cant find any issues with braking system or sensors and they are not aware of any braking issues with this model. When i told them that i found online that theres an investigation opened last year about this issue in other accords, they had no idea what i was talking about and asked them to google it and they refuse. They refuse to fix the issue and suggest to just keep driving the vehicle since theres nothing for them to fix.

NHTSA ODI 11506095

Feb 1, 2023Driver assistance

This car has randomly slammed on the breaks too many times to count and has been reported far too many times. Today while in the left lane on 95 southbound this car randomly slammed on the breaks so violently the speed was reduced 20 mph with seconds. This is incredibly dangerous, HOW LONG WILL YOU ALL THIS

NHTSA ODI 11505069

Sep 6, 2022Driver assistance

Vehicle tends to turn on brake warning light when there is nothing in the way. Driving with no obstacle in the way and the brake warning sign will display on dashboard. I’ve driven it on the highway with no cars and it will signal me to brake for no reason. I’m afraid the brakes might apply which could cause a serious accident.

NHTSA ODI 11483068

Sep 4, 2022Driver assistance

Vehicle flashed "brake" on the dashboard and automatically engaged brakes despite nothing being ahead in the road. This occurred on a clear, sunny day around late morning on the interstate. Similar issues have occurred previously where the car flashed the "brake" warning light despite nothing being immediately ahead in the road. With this other incident the brakes were not engaged. This time the brakes engaged, then released, and the car continued. Later on that same trip, the "brake" warning would again flash despite no objects being immediately ahead in the road. The vehicle arbitrarily braking without warning or reason is extremely dangerous as it may cause vehicles behind including much larger trucks to slam into the car. The Honda dealer and Honda customer service were both contacted when the car on a previous occasion flashed "brake" despite no obstructions but neither has returned my messages.

NHTSA ODI 11482817

Aug 15, 2022Driver assistance

My automatic emergency breaking kicked in today when there were no cars in front of me. My car began beeping loudly and flashing the word “BRAKE” and the car abruptly stopped in the middle of a very busy road. My daughter and I could’ve been very hurt but were lucky there was enough room behind us that we didn’t get rear ended. Nobody has checked this out yet because it just happened, but I am willing and open to having it looked at. I had a brief warning while the car flashed “BRAKE” and beeped, but there were no cars in front of us, and nothing I could do to make the car not slam on the brakes by itself.

NHTSA ODI 11479470

Jul 5, 2022Driver assistance1 injury

Honda Accord multi point serviced July 2nd at Hendricks Honda Easley SC. Immediately after I was driving on Haywood Rd. Greenville SC when my vehicle slammed on brakes for no reason. There was no car, animal, pedestrian or debris in road to cause to happen. As a result I experienced whip lash and was seen by a doctor and therapist July 5th. This has caused me to be afraid to drive my own car plus miss work plus enjoy my July 4th. I have reported this to Honda Motor Company and I also returned to Hendricks Honda to have a diagnostic test performed but all they did was put 20 miles on my vehicle and said I would have to bring it in and leave it for 3 - 4 hours. WHY? If you truly checked it out today I don't feel I need to return for them to just tell me anything. I really feel like they wasted time doing nothing today. There diagnostic was just driving my vehicle and adding unnecessary miles.

NHTSA ODI 11472428

Jul 2, 2022Speed controlDriver assistanceCrash

Car moving slowly and suddenly races and speeds UP. Hard to STOP it. Has happened twice, 8 to 10 Months apart.. First time was on a small driveway. Was able to STOP CAR , with no damages. 2nd occurrence i was pulling into a parking Space. Foot not on gas or brake and again the CAR accelerated. This Time the CAR hit a handicapped parking sign and pushed it over. The sign stopped the CAR with Assistance from me. There was a small drop in front of the CAR and a tree 10-15 Feet in front of the Hill. The passenger in my CAR would have been in severe trouble had I not gotten the CAR stopped. My husband thought i may have somehow activated the cruise control. But i was going less than 20 miles per hour each time. This could be a deadly problem if a Child or Someone Crossed in front of me.

NHTSA ODI 11472159

Jun 8, 2022Driver assistance

The forward collision will automatically brake with nothing visibly in front of it. I have drove down the highway going 60mph. No car, animal, person, tall grass, etc in front of me or crossing the road and my vehicle pops up brake, brake, brake, and my car slams on break. This will cause someone to rear end me which can lead to a serious injury or even dead. I have contacted Honda corporate who instructed me to contact Townsend Honda in Tuscaloosa, AL. I contacted Townsend Honda and they stated that it was nothing they could do about it and they have other complaining of the same issue.

NHTSA ODI 11468331

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Working with the data? Download all 217 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 28, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2021 Honda Accord Fhev verdict →