JaguarLand Rover products have never had the most stellar reputation for reliability, and with a new recall for almost every SUV nameplate that the company sold or still sells in America, that reputation is hardly getting any better. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced a recall affecting 170,169 mild-hybrid vehicles from nine model lines across a total of 35 products. In fact, the only SUV that JLR hasn’t recalled is the electric I-Pace. It’s a fairly serious recall, as it could lead to both a loss of drive power and exterior lighting, and we don’t need to tell you why those two things happening at the same time could be particularly dangerous, especially at night. Worse still, there isn’t yet a solution to the problem.
JLR Recall Affects Loads of Luxury SUVs
Jaguar Land Rover
The recall has been issued because the DC-DC converter could fail, affecting the following vehicles:
- 2021-2022 Jaguar E-Pace (528 units)
- 2021-2024 Jaguar F-Pace (4,449 units)
- 2020-2024 Land Rover Defender (53,644)
- 2021-2024 Land Rover Discovery (6,323 units)
- 2020 Land Rover Discovery Sport (381 units)
- 2020-2024 Land Rover Range Rover (34,930 units)
- 2020-2023 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque (2,994 units)
- 2019-2024 Land Rover Range Rover Sport (61,616 units)
- 2021-2024 Land Rover Range Rover Velar (5,304 units)
When an automaker issues a recall such as this, it will estimate a percentage of the recalled number expected to potentially have the problem, and this will often be a single-digit figure, but in this case, JLR estimates that every vehicle named in the recall report has a faulty DC-DC converter, a problem that has been plaguing the company’s SUVs worldwide, not just in the U.S.
Related: Jaguar Canceled Four New Cars Before Deciding to Go All-Electric
JLR’s Product Safety and Compliance Committee first reviewed this issue in September 2024 and concluded that, because symptoms progressed gradually, the fault did not pose an unreasonable risk to safety. More reports kept coming in, however, so a dedicated engineering task force was set up to investigate, though its efforts were stunted by JLR’s massive cybersecurity failure last year. JLR continued work in November 2025, and in April, the NHTSA explained that it viewed this as a safety problem, not a customer satisfaction issue. So how do you know if your SUV or crossover has the fault?
JLR Safety Issue Shows Several Warning Signs
Land Rover
According to the NHTSA recall report, the problem is first revealed to customers through a red warning message that appears on the dash within 10 seconds of the converter’s failure, telling them to stop safely because of an electrical fault. As the 12-volt system progressively loses charge, other warnings appear, including but not limited to warnings for failures of the lane-keep assist program, suspension, and stability control system. If the driver keeps going, the vehicle shifts into neutral, showing a gearbox fault on the cluster. JLR says the vehicle will stay on for a while, but then the center screen and the climate control both stop working. Finally, the engine shuts off, and ultimately, the battery becomes too depleted to maintain power to the exterior lighting systems.
In other words, as soon as the first warning appears, owners of the affected vehicles should find a safe place to pull over as quickly as possible, or they could become stranded in the dark, becoming a hazard to themselves and other road users. Dealers will be notified on the 1st of May, but customers will only get an interim notification in June, and with the remedy still in development, JLR doesn’t know when it will be able to solve the issue.
Jaguar Land Rover
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