Nissan Leaf recalls almost 47,000 electric cars to fix brake problem

Citing a possible brake issue, Nissan has issued a recall for almost 47,000 Leaf electric cars models in the US and Canada. The recalled cars include Leaf models sold in 2013 through 2015.

To date, there have been no reports of accidents or injuries by Nissan. The automaker will send formal notifications to owners of the faulty car models, which need to be repaired. However, Nissan has yet to issue the notification schedule.

The affected Leaf vehicles were manufactured between Nov. 19, 2012 and July 31, 2015. To be precise, the recall involves 46,859 Nissan Leafs in the U.S. and 679 cars in Canada.

Last Friday, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also issued a letter in response to the Nissan North America, Inc.'s notification to recall the faulty vehicles. Documents issued by the agency indicate that the problem centers on a relay in the electronics brake booster, which need to be reprogrammed.

Extremely cold weather can lead to a failure of the relay, causing risk of crashing. The brake relay may freeze and additional brake efforts may be required to stop the vehicle. This means the driver would need more effort to operate the brake.

Nissan dealers will reprogram the Intelligent Brake Control Unite software in the recalled Leaf models, free of charge.

More than a year ago, Canadian regulators started looking into the issue of Nissan LEAF’s braking performance in extremely cold temperatures. Last year, the company acknowledged the “ brake system malfunctions in Nissan LEAF electric vehicles in severe cold weather” and agreed to resolve the issue.