2025 HYUNDAI SANTA FE HYBRID Complaints

The contact stated that while driving, a slow leak on the inside side wall right rear passenger side. The vehicle was taken when taken to the dealer to replace. Left front driver side, had a bubble in the side wall. The tire was replaced. In another occurrence, was noticed on the The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with front right and back right bubbles on the outside wall of the tire. The manufacturer was not notified. The approximate failure mileage was 7,000. The

Driving home from church this morning, the vehicle experiences a sudden loss of power and the car went into “limp mode”. Even the pedal floored and the engine rpms high, the car would barely go about 25 or 30 mph. A message from the dash board told me to pull over and leave the engine running to charge the EV batteries. The batteries would charge enough for what I thought would get me home but quickly drained leaving repeat the action until I could limp the six miles home with flashers on and cars passing me to get around. No warning lights and no indication there was a problem until it happened leaving me baffled and frustrated. I was just thankful that I wasn’t going faster when it happened. If I had been going faster when this happened, it could have created a major accident. Dangerous! Since this happened on Sunday, the dealer wasn’t open. I hope to get it to the dealer tomorrow to find out what is going on and how to fix it. The car has only 14850 miles on it.

The contact owns a 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving approximately 65 MPH, the vehicle unexpectedly decelerated to 25 MPH with a “Vehicle Will Shut Down” warning message displayed. The contact stated that the engine then began to shut down, and although the accelerator pedal was depressed, the vehicle failed to accelerate and stalled. The failure occurred on multiple occasions, requiring the vehicle to be towed each time. The vehicle was towed to the dealer; the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired and the contact was informed that the failure could not be duplicated. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and multiple cases were opened, The failure mileage was approximately 3,300.

Since February 2026 I have had daily incidents of the hybrid system error where the vehicle is only relying on the hybrid battery to move. I've had a few near miss accidents as my car crawls through an intersection. Was almost rear-end after leaving a stop sign and the hybrid system error popped up and the car doesn't accelerate. In order to temporarily fix the system, the car must be shut off and restarted. There is not always a safe place to be pulled over to perform this shut down. It is a driving hazard and not safe to drive. It has been to the shop now a 3rd time with no resolution. I have reached out direct to Hyundai Corporation with my concerns and they have documentation. The car is a 2025 model and has less than 5,000 miles. I fear a serious accident from this system error and Hyundai needs to resolve ASAP.

Any of the airbags failed to deploy during a significant crash. It is not available for inspection due to it being investigated by insurance. The driver and passengers' safety were affected in that more bodily damage could have occurred if they had hit the steering wheel or any other part of the car. I do not know if the problem has been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer, as i have tried to reach out to the dealer and they have not contacted me back. The vehicle is still being determined as if it can be repaired or it needs to be totaled. There were no indications of warning lamps, messages or other symptoms prior to failure.

I had stopped and put gas in for a full tank. Pulled out onto the Hwy heading towards Houston TX and was accelerating up to speed limit of 50MPH when the warning on the instrument panel displayed HYBRID SYSTEMS DISABLED pull over and stop immediately. Which I did, but I could not accelerate and was losing speed in traffic. I got safely parked and turned the vehicle off. I let the car sit for a few minutes and started it back up. All warnings were gone and the vehicle has performed normally since up to the current mileage of 9374. I took the vehicle to Hyundai today, 4/13/2026 and they hooked it up to the diagnostic system and it showed NOTHING.

The 2025 Hyundai Hybrid Santa Fe SEL has experienced two instances (Nov 2025, 11k miles & Apr 2026, 14k miles) where the combustion engine fails to provide power to the vehicle’s wheels. The engine continues to run, but only enough to maintain a charge to the hybrid battery system. When accelerating to speeds above 30 miles per hour or when traveling up inclines, the combustion engine’s rotations per minute (rpm) spiked, however the vehicle’s power-train still rapidly lost power and the hybrid battery drained significant charge. During one instance in November 2025, while attempting to accelerate to 55 mph up an incline, the hybrid battery drained enough that the vehicle was required to be pulled off the road to allow the battery to charge. During the April 2026 event, while containing a family of four (including to young children under six years of age), the vehicle failed to accelerate to 60 mph up an incline on an interstate freeway bridge. The vehicle rapidly slowed to between 20 and 30 mph, putting the family in grave danger from high-speed collisions. Following both instances, the on-board diagnostics computer was reset, “resolving the issue” and the Hyundai technicians elected to make no further repairs or replacements. The onboard diagnostics code P0191 was reported following the April 2026 event, however no codes or errors were identified by the Hyundai technician following the November 2025 event. No additional follow-up was performed, even though the vehicle remained under the manufacturer’s warranty.

Sudden loss of power (multiple incidences in the first 3000 miles, multiple service visits). While driving normally there was a sudden loss of power. Once at an interstate on ramp while attempting to merge, and three times while driving on city streets. The first dealer visit resulted in no action due to no codes and the problem not replicating. When I pulled into the dealer and shut off the car; I received an alert that the vehicle was officially transferred to me. When I restarted the vehicle, it operated normally. The consensus was that the vehicle was left in “dealer mode” and it was several days after I purchased the vehicle before the system was updated. The second insident was deemed to be a bad catalytic converter which was replaced by the dealer. The third incident was said to be due to a bad fuel rail sensor which also caused the catalytic converter from the second incident. The fourth incident occurred the day after the vehicle was repaired from the third instance. The vehicle was not safe to drive and was towed to the dealer, where it is today.

Gas Motor is not engaging to assist electric drivetrain on a hybrid AWD 2025 Santa Fe. This resulted in a dangerous situation crossing a busy road from a stop sign. The Santa Fe rolled into the intersection at the drivers request, but did not accelerate normally (only to a maximum of a few miles per hour) and felt like an eternity to cross the road. Fortunately oncoming drivers from left and right were paying attention and slowed down and in one case honked aggressively to point out we driving badly. Pulling over to the side of the road, turning the vehicle off and then back on again has sometimes made it run normally, but we limited our trips at that point to first getting safely home and then delivering it to the dealer. The 20 mile drive to the dealer required pulling over twice to reset the vehicle so the electric motor would assist. We have had repeated warnings from the onboard system including "Follow up checks required - Engine Management System" and "There may be a problem with the engine management system Contact your Dealer". I will note that we have 11,000 miles and 11 months experience with the vehicle with NO problems. It may not be relevant, but these new faults began 2 days routine service for oil and tire rotation when recall was performed including ECU Software Update for Recall 25-01-028-1. Dealer is uncertain of problem and referring with outside tech assistance from Hyundai but we were told to expect 2 weeks for parts and repair and uncertainty as to whether that would fix it. In the meantime a vehicle with unreliable acceleration and top speed is unsafe and parked. I do note on this NHTSA website 2025 HYUNDAI SANTA FE HYBRID SUV AWD that there are 47 Complaints. 9 relating to this problem all beginning October 2025 and none prior back to the first post of Nov 2024 for this model. Complaints similar to this for engine management and speed and power loss account for 50% of complaints for this vehicle on the NHSTA website since October 2025.

Vehicle experienced a loss of acceleration while driving. When pressing the accelerator, engine RPM increased significantly but the vehicle did not increase speed. The vehicle felt as though it was stuck in one gear and would not upshift or downshift. The issue was most noticeable while driving uphill, where the vehicle was unable to maintain speed despite full throttle input. This created a safety concern as the vehicle could not accelerate normally in traffic conditions. The problem has been progressively worsening over time. Initially there were mild symptoms, but it has become more severe and frequent, culminating in a near-complete inability to accelerate under load. No warning lights or messages were observed prior to or during the failure (if that’s true—adjust if needed). Vehicle has approximately 28,000 miles. The vehicle is currently at a dealership for inspection and diagnosis, but the issue has not yet been confirmed or resolved at the time of this report.