Honda · CR-V Hybrid · 2021
2
Recalls
99
Complaints
5/5
Safety Rating
The 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid has 2 recalls and 99 owner-reported complaints on file with NHTSA. Overall safety rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Most reported issue: forward collision avoidance (17 reports).
Source: NHTSA Public Records · Updated Apr 22, 2026
This page combines three types of NHTSA data: recall campaigns (official manufacturer or government actions), owner complaints (unverified consumer reports), and crash test ratings (where available). A vehicle with many complaints is not necessarily less reliable — complaint volume correlates with sales volume and vehicle age. Recalls indicate identified defects, not overall quality. To compare this model year with others, use the year navigation in the sidebar or return to the model overview page.
Frontal Crash Test

Side Crash Test

Overall Frontal Rating
Driver and Passenger Assessment
Driver Side
Passenger Side
Overall Side Rating
Side Barrier and Side Pole Tests
Driver Side
Passenger Side
Rollover Resistance
16.4% rollover risk in single-vehicle crash
Safety Features
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Pilot, Accord, Civic sedan, HR-V, Odyssey, 2020 Civic coupe, Fit, 2021-2022 Civic hatchback, 2021 Civic Type R, Insight, 2020-2021 CR-V, CR-V Hybrid, Passport, Ridgeline, Accord Hybrid, 2020 Acura MDX, 2022 Acura MDX, 2020-2022 Acura RDX, and 2020-2021 Acura TLX vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, failing to suppress the air bag as intended.
Remedy Status
Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 28, 2024, October 18, 2024, and August 2025. This is a phased recall. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for these recalls are XHP and VHQ.
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2020-2022 CR-V Hybrid vehicles. The 12-Volt battery cable routed outside of the body frame is missing a fuse on the power circuit, which can allow the battery cable to short circuit or overheat during a crash.
Remedy Status
Dealers will replace the battery cable, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 29, 2024. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's number for this recall is FGB.
The vehicle experienced a premature failure of the head gasket; it was blown at 130,000 miles. I was close to home when I received a dash alert stating not to accelerate as the engine was nearing a critically high temperature. If I had not been able to get home so quickly, my safety may have been compromised as my car could have overheated forcing me to pull over on the shoulder of a busy bridge. My local dealership inspected the vehicle and has quoted me nearly $4,500 for the repair, despite it appearing as this is a known issue with this particular engine.
While traveling northwest at 37 mph, the automatic brake system engaged jolting the driver. The camera shows no objects in front of but there were two vehicles traveling southeast in the opposite lane prior to the brakes applying. There were shadows from trees. If there was a vehicle behind, and the driver did not react fast enough, this would have been a rearend collision. This is the third time that the automatic brake system engaged for no reason since we have owned this vehicle (Dec 2021) and each time it has been reported to the NTSB. In the past two cases, there were no vehicles or shadows from trees, since we were in the desert. The previous two times, the vehicle was inspected by the dealership with no defect noted (under warranty). There were no dashboard warning notices indicating an issue. The vehicle will be resubmitted to a dealership for inspection for this third incident (not under warranty).
Traveling on 4 lane highway at 65 mph on slight upgrade-check engine light started flashing and vehicle started to shudder slightly and went into "limp" mode I think. Started to slow down with NO power. Turned on emergency flashers and was able to pull over without incident, although it was close to causing an accident with a tractor trailer. I shut the vehicle down and after 10 minutes, started it again> I was able to drive home another 45 miles without incident. This happened a week ago and so far it hasn't happened again.
When I accelerate up a hill at speed I lose power of the car. Once I pull over and turn the car off and wait a few minutes, the car starts up and drives fine. I have taken it in to be fixed and one time they changed spark plugs and a head gasket and then about 8 months later it did the same thing. I took it in to be checked out and they cannot find anything wrong with it. I have searched online and have found out there are other people having the same issue with this model (2021 CRV hybrid). I've only owned the car for 4 years and love Honda's and have owned one most of my life so this is disappointing.
Engine overheating in short trips with full coolant and oil. My car is 4 years old and after years of mysteriously going into limp mode and no help from the dealer, I believe it has a bad head gasket. this started when the car was 3 years old.
The contact owns a 2021 Honda CR-V. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the steering wheel failed to turn in the intended direction. No warning light was illuminated. Additionally, the contact stated that the failure had occurred several times. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the failure was not duplicated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 57,500.
My 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid has experienced three identical and dangerous incidents over a one month period beginning around 60,000 miles. Each time, while driving at highway speeds (60-70 mph) climbing hills or grades, the vehicle suddenly loses all acceleration power accompanied by a rapidly flashing check engine light. This creates an extremely hazardous situation as the vehicle cannot maintain highway speeds with fast-moving traffic approaching from behind, forcing emergency stops on busy highway shoulders where rear-end collisions become a serious risk. After each incident, turning off the vehicle and waiting 10+ minutes allows normal operation to resume, with the flashing check engine light disappearing. The malfunction involves the engine ignition system, specifically cylinder 4 misfiring as confirmed by diagnostic trouble code P0304 that I captured during the most recent incident. The suspected failing components include the ignition coil, spark plug, or fuel injector for cylinder 4. What makes this particularly dangerous is the complete unpredictability - no warning symptoms appear before each incident, and the failure occurs suddenly under specific conditions that are common in highway driving. Despite three documented occurrences, two separate Honda dealerships have been unable to reproduce the issue or confirm the problem. Both claim they find "no stored codes" even though I have evidence of the P0304 code. The codes appear to be cleared after turning the vehicle off and on. The intermittent nature and specific conditions required (sustained highway speeds while climbing grades) prevent typical shop diagnosis, yet this appears to be a widespread pattern affecting multiple 2021 CR-V Hybrids based on similar owner reports online. The recurring nature combined with the inability of dealers to address the root cause, creates an ongoing safety hazard. The vehicle remains available for inspection.
UNKNOWN. On 4/13/25 morning, I was with my wife driving towards a park and our car decelerated suddenly from 37 miles to 20 miles and then slowed down. Luckily no driver behind us was close otherwise the car would have crashed. We pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the engine. Restarted and the car seemed to run normal. The dealer who sold this car checked on 4/16/25 and they could not find any problem and asked to bring back if it happens again. We are totally speechless and don't know what to do next.
The steering is sticky at highway speeds like something is wrong with the steering input. The steering doesn't react then all of a sudden the steering wheel releases and over compensates requiring a quick opposite steering input. Difficult to drive on the highway. A real safety issue.
Brittle / torn top black windshield seal gasket tendency to fog / moisture / rain/water penetration inside the car . Also decolorize all black plastic side panels
On the FREEWAY. The engine-icon lit up on the dash screen. Shortly after, I realized that the car was slowing down. Pushed on gas pedal and nothing happened. Started going slower and slower. Put on the emergency flashers, changed lanes to the far right and managed to coast it to a spot with a shoulder large enough to get me 100% on the shoulder. Turned off the power button and sat there for about 3-5 minutes. Turned the car back on and it was fine the rest of the way to my destination. Has not happened since. It was VERY scary! Called the dealership the next morning. Took it in at their request. There were no "codes" that came up and they had no idea why it happened. No resolution.
Within the past 3 months, twice now, the battery indicator goes to zero and engine loses power and you can't accelerate. This is very dangerous where we live as it is a 2 lane mountain highway with few spots to safely pull over. There are a number of posts about this know issue, all stating the same scenario and that no Honda dealerships will fix it as they "can't determine an issue". I called our dealer after this happened the first time and was instructed to not restart the vehicle and just have it towed in. That is not realistic.
The issue occurs seemingly randomly about once a month when driving on the highway. All of the sudden the car starts de-accelerating. Even if you push the gas pedal all the way down it doesn’t go. It just goes slower and slower and thank goodness I’ve been able to pull over every time. Once I shutdown the car completely and turn back on then I have power again.
Several times when I was traveling at highway speeds on interstates, the car would suddenly decelerate and the engine light would start flashing. Sometimes the car shakes as well. When this occurs, I am unable to accelerate and the car's speed slows dramatically. I have to pull off onto the shoulder, shut the car off, and then turn it back on to clear the problem. I brought it to the dealership several times and they said there was no error code so they couldn't determine what occurred. Finally, they test drove the vehicle and experienced this problem and fixed it. I'm unsure of what they did to fix it. However, a couple of months passed and it just happened again. I was traveling approx. 70 miles per hour in rainy conditions in the left lane of an interstate with a lot of traffic/tractor trailers. I had to maneuver to the shoulder and put my hazard lights on. It is EXTREMELY dangerous and given the sudden slow speed on a highway with a 70 mph speed limit, this could easily cause a serious accident. I am going back to the dealership on Monday but it is concerning that they thought they fixed the problem and apparently, the defect is still present.
I was driving the vehicle on route I287 and all of a sudden the break system got activated without touching any button and the car speed was damped down and as a result the car was pulled aside to see what had happened. The break system completely collapsed with a break sign on the dashboard appearing persistently which could not be deactivated or was not able to remove from the dashboard with several attempts made in restarting the engine. Due to the involuntary break activation on highway driving, my life as well others would have been in extreme danger and jeopardized the whole situation in continuing driving further. The car was towed on a flat bed to the the dealer The Honda Princenton, New Jersey for further investigation and got analyzed for the root cause and they suggested a fix of head gasket replacement, a major repair, asking us to fix the vehicle at the cost of 6000 dollars. Previously, I had driven several Hondas and never experienced break issues on the cars and we had invested in buying this time the Honda CR-V and what we went through this vehicle something like this is not fair for the customer has to go through a major repair on the vehicle at such a low milage of 127,000 put on the car which never was involved in an accident and driving the car on high way every day to the work place. We want a complete restoration of the vehicle at free of cost and get it certified and drivable safely on the road.
On January 15th while driving home with my son I attempted to accelerate around a truck when I hit approximately 60 mph the vehicle stopped accelerating and began to slow down. I did notice that the "charge bar" for the hybrid battery was indicating that it was charging. The car continued to decelerate and I pulled to the side of the road. The check engine light was flashing. I turned the vehicle off for a minute and started it back up. The car drove fine and I was able to make it home. The dealership said there were no codes saved and they had no explanation. This was a the third time in the past year this has occurred and no one can tell me what the codes are or how to fix it.
On highway, engaged cruise control at 70 mph. Engine light came on, simultaneously with loss of power (pressing on gas pedal did nothing) and Apple CarPlay disconnect. We were near an exit and managed to drift off, at lower off-ramp speed engine again could respond to accelerator however was chugging very badly. Went to nearby oil change place. Mechanic there advised going straight to dealer a short distance further. Drove on to the Honda dealer, car still chugging and stopped the car until I could talk to the service person. When the car restarted it was no longer chugging. Service person diagnosed the following and said i basically needed a new engine: TECH SCANNED VEHICLE AND FOUND CODES P0300 RANDOM CYL MISFIRE, P0302 CYL 2 MISFIRE. TECH CHECKED LIVE DATA AND HAD VERY LITTLE MISFIRE COMING FROM CYL 3, PULLED ALL COILS AND PLUGS AND FOUND CYL 2 AND 4 HAD THE INJECTORS STILL SPRAYING WITH THE VEHICLE OFF INDICATING FAILURE OF THE INJECTORS IN THOSE 2 CYLINDERS, IN CYLINDER 3 TECH FOUND EXCESSIVE OIL BURNING ON THE PISTON, INDICATING OIL LEAKING INTO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER OF THE MOTOR.
This is the 3rd incident with the same issue. I lose power when on a freeway. (Other dates [XXX] and [XXX]). On [XXX] I entered [XXX] and had accelerated onto the freeway. Shortly after getting on the ramp, my check engine light went on/blinking and I couldn't accelerate anymore. I was able to pull over on the shoulder. I turned the car off, waited a minute and then turned it on again and the issue went away. This is the same scenario that I've experienced twice before. I am rarely on freeways. On [XXX], I was on an incline with curves and very little room on the shoulder. This was a very scary incident for me. All of these incidents shouldn't happen and it is VERY dangerous to lose power unexpectedly when driving on a freeway. Looking on the internet for a solution - I found several other posts on what sounds to be the same issue and unfortunately didn't find a resolution. [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] Please review this as this is unsafe. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
See attached document for complaint.
2021 Hybrid-CR began loosing power while driving and the check engine light turned on. Pulling over to the side of the road, turning it off, and then restarting the car turned off the check engine light. After several occurrences took the car to dealership where they were not able to pinpoint the problem as the check engine light was not on at that time and warnings are not stored in the diagnostic module of the car. Driving 75 mph ALL dashboard warning lights turned on. Was able to pull over to the side of the road and had car towed to dealership. The cylinder head is bad. New cylinder heads are currently on back order and there is no date of when a new one would become available. The head can be sent to a shop for repair for $8,000 cost. Honda is aware of the issue and has offered a 75-25% split on this cost: they pay 75% and we pay the remaining 25%. In the meantime we are without a vehicle for an obvious faulty cylinder head manufactured for the engine and unsuspecting drivers are put into hazardous safety situation.
Showing 1–20 of 25 complaints
The 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid has 2 recalls recorded by NHTSA.
NHTSA has received 99 owner-reported complaints for the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid.
The 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid received an overall safety rating of 5 out of 5 stars from NHTSA.
The most commonly reported complaint categories for the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid are forward collision avoidance (17 reports), electrical system (12 reports), engine (8 reports).
Yes. NHTSA has 2 recalls on record for the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid. Scroll up to review the published recall summaries, consequences, and remedies. To check for unrepaired recalls on your specific vehicle, use your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
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This page summarizes publicly available data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Complaint counts reflect reports submitted to NHTSA by vehicle owners and do not by themselves prove defect severity or vehicle safety. Safety ratings may not be available for all vehicle-years. This site is not affiliated with NHTSA or any vehicle manufacturer. For official information, visit the official NHTSA page for this vehicle.