It is learned that the cars involved were produced between March 19, 2009 and January 25, 2010. Toyota says that the recall is mainly due to a potential flaw in the accelerator pedal of these cars that may, in some rare cases, cause a failure in slowing down, and hence affect driving safety.

To date, Toyota has stopped the sale of all RAV4 cars with the potential problem and it has said that it will offer a free rectification service for all the recalled cars. The company says it will notify car owners about the recall by letter, telephone call, or mobile phone text messages. In the meantime consumers in China can call the company's hotline or log onto the websites dpac.gov.cn or qiche365.org.cn, or call 010-59799616 to learn about more recall details.

So far, Toyota has recalled a total of more than 5.42 million defective cars worldwide. And this is reported to account for about 70% of the company's global car sales in 2009.