All rise, court is in session for Toyota and Subaru. The automakers have been slammed by a class-action lawsuit that claims the 12-Volt batteries in electric SUVs keep dying. The same battery is used in the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra. 

Subaru and Toyota face lawsuit over dying SUVs 

Toyota and Subaru need to lawyer up as they face a class-action lawsuit over alleged battery failure. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. Eastern District Court of California and claims that the automakers knew that their electric SUVs had battery problems before they went on sale. 

The Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra were developed jointly and share multiple components, including the same 12-volt battery. The plaintiffs claim these SUVs drain and kill the battery on a regular basis. 

According to Yahoo, multiple complaints about the battery have been posted on Reddit, filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), listed on CarComplaints. 

One owner shared that they had the battery replaced after six months. Then it was low again after three weeks. Another owner shared that they’ve had it replaced three times. Plus, one plaintiff alleges that he’s had the battery replaced three times before reaching 5,000 miles. 

But it’s unclear what causes the alleged battery defect. This could impact the outcome of the lawsuit. Other electric SUVs have experienced similar issues. 

For example, when a few owners of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 experienced battery death. They eventually learned that it was due to third-party applications that were pinging the vehicles too frequently via Bluetooth. 

When the Ford Mustang Mach-E had battery issues, Ford realized that it was due to a software issue and issued a service bulletin to correct the problem.