August 13, 2026- Driver was traveling on Route 30 West approaching the Reeceville Exit. Driver attempted to pass a tractor trailer. As car accelerated to pass tractor trail, engine light flashed and car lost the ability to accelerate. As driver lost ability to power the car, he allowed truck to pass him and then coasted into right lane and eventually off to the side of the highway. Car had a half tank of gas at the time of incident. Safety of driver at risk as car was traveling approx. 61 mph in order to pass another vehicle. Suddenly, power lost in car as car was passing truck and driver had to maneuver car from passing lane into right lane and eventually come to a stop on side of road. Honda was contacted since this occured before. It was taken in on Monday August 17th.
2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid transmission problems
12 complaints (11% of all complaints for this car). 1 crash reported.
- owner complaints
- 12
- of this car's complaints
- 11%
- crashes
- 1
- recalls
- 0
Which part fails
Owners did not name a specific part.
At what mileage
Complaints by mileage at the time of the problem.
Honda CR-V Hybrid transmission problems in other years
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
What 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid owners say
Most recent owner complaints, unedited.
I am a senior citizen who bought a brand new 2021 Honda CRV hybrid in 2022. I used the vehicle mainly for driving around town in city driving. I ensured that my vehicle received all the necessary scheduled maintenance at either the dealership I bought the vehicle,(Pacific Honda, [XXX];phone [XXX]) or a certified Honda dealership. I have complete maintenance records at the Honda dealership for the entire life onf the vehicle. In early XXX I received a warning light on my dash concerning the engine and immediately took the vehicle into the Honda dealership to have it looked at. I was told I had a blown headgasket and the repairs would be approximately $7,000.00 dollars. The mechanic then told me that this was a common problem with this vehicle due to the engine Honda put in the car. The mechanic advised me to contactHonda to see if they would assist me with the cost due to the fact that this was a manufacturing problem and I did nothing to cause the issue and there is nothing I could have done differently to have avoided this issue. I called and Honda told me there was nothing they could do for me since the car was out of warranty. I bought the vehicle in August of 2021 and repair was done XXX. I was treated very poorly at the Honda dealership and lost trust in their tech team. On XXX I received another warning light on my dash. I took my vehicle to Mossy Honda in [XXX] to have it looked at due to the fact I did not trust Pacific Honda. They did a multi point inspection and told me that my Rear differential was bad and had to be replaced for approximately $5,500.00 dollars. I had the work done. When I picked up the vehicle after the repair the tech told me that the Rear differential was completely bad and that there were metal flakes throughout the Rear Differential. He told me that if I had not brought it in when I did the car could have had a catastrophic lockup or seizure! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Manufacturer Dealer Diagnostic confirmed that Head Gasket is leaking on cylinder 1 and that this is a known issue. Vehicle just 3 months and barely 2000 miles out of new car warranty. Manufacturer fails to cover repair at 100% Power Loss while driving on the freeway on 2 separate occasions. Engine did not provide power in response to accelerator pedal, car slows down w/o control. Incident 1 traveling 65 mph Hwy [XXX] in [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
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.
I own a 2021 Honda CR-V Touring hybrid and have had 2 incidents of what I have learned is called sudden unintentional acceleration (SUA). I bought the car new and took possession of it in the spring of 2021. The first incident occurred Nov 14, 2023 when I was parking at a restaurant. I was slowly pulling forward into a parking spot where there were unattended cars on either side of me as well as in front of me. Suddenly, without warning, I was surging with full force into the minivan parked ahead of me as well as the front end of the car parked next to it. I slammed on the brake but not before I had pushed the minvan several feet forward. I did not know how this happened but, even though I knew that I had not stepped on the gas pedal nor had something interfered with it, I assumed that I must have done something to cause this accident. Thousands of dollars of damage was done to my car as well as the other two vehicles that were struck. The second incident was June 11, 2025. I was slowly advancing forward into a hotel parking space. There was a curb at the end of the space with some landscaping behind that. The landscaping had an uphill incline with some large evergreens about 8-10 feet from the curb. Once again, the car suddenly surged forward, jumping the curb, and accelerating into the evergreens. I slammed on the brake, feeling like I was putting my foot through the floor. This was an exact repeat of the previous incident and I am absolutely certain that I did nothing to cause this acceleration to occur. I was able to back out of the evergreens and my car does not appear to be damaged. Airbags were not deployed in either incident. I went on-line and there are numerous reports of similar incidents among CR-v owners but I do not see any recalls or actions taken by Honda on this problem. I intend to take the car to the Honda dealer in the next week. I fear the next incident may result in injury or death.
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.
My car lost power and the engine light came on when on the freeway. I was in the middle of merging from [XXX] to [XXX] on a San Diego freeway. Because of the highway interchange situation, I was in the far left lane and needed to merge about 4-5 lanes to the right to get to the next off ramp. This was so scary!! Though I had my hazard lights on, cars coming up behind me didn't expect a car to be slowing down in the middle of the freeway as the car decelerated down to 20 mph. I was very lucky that my car was not rear-ended. I used the side roads and the electric power to of my hybrid engine to drive about 7 miles to a Honda dealer. They asked me to turn off my car (big mistake). Honda had my car for 3 days and drove it about 70 miles, but could never duplicate the issue. I am [XXX] and frequently from Southern to Northern California alone. I have driven over 700,000 miles in my lifetime and never had a car's combustion engine stop on the freeway. I researched this unique situation and found out other Honda CRV-Hybrid owners have experienced this, but Honda had no solution. They told me they knew it was a cylinder issue and the tech saw "misfire codes" but without more details, there was nothing they could do. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
This is the second time this vehicle has randomly lost power / internal combustion engine stalled while driving on the interstate. Vehicle was traveling approximately 70mph steady for 10 minutes when the incident occurred. The combustion engine began to shutter and stalled, check engine light began blinking. Hybrid battery went down to zero and had to make an emergency departure off the highway with no power. Vehicle had to be powered off and powered back on to resume normal operation. Because the CELlight cleared the dealership cannot look up the fault and mark it as NPF. When I search this issue, it seems to be fairly common with the 2020+ honda hybrids (crv and accords). This type of power train failure / stall is extremely dangerous especially on highways with little or no warning and time to react. We are begging the federal safety agency to have Honda do a through investigation and recall to remediate the engine stall failures on these hybrid vehicles ASAP as this is extremely dangerous for our family and other drivers around us.
The contact owns a 2021 Honda CR-V. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle independently decelerated with the check engine warning light illuminated. The accelerator pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle failed to respond as intended. The contact drove the vehicle to the shoulder of the road and turned off the vehicle. The contact stated that when the vehicle was restarted, the check engine warning light was no longer illuminated. The contact proceeded to drive the vehicle without any further issues. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the failure could not be duplicated. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to the dealer twice due to the failure and each time the failure could not be duplicated. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 23,000.
The contact owns a 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the check engine warning light illuminated, and the vehicle decelerated unintendedly. After restarting the vehicle, the failure was corrected, and the vehicle operated normally. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who replaced the fuel line, but the failure persisted. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 15,000.
Questions about the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid transmission
Does the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid have transmission problems?
Owners have filed 12 complaints about the transmission of the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid, 11% of all its complaints.
At what mileage do 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid transmission problems start?
Not enough complaints include the mileage to tell.
Was there a recall on the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid transmission?
There is no recall for this problem on this model year.
What year does the Honda CR-V Hybrid have bad transmission?
The Honda CR-V Hybrid model years with the most transmission complaints are 2021 (12 complaints) and 2022 (11 complaints).
Is there a class action lawsuit over the Honda CR-V Hybrid?
Yes. Class action says Honda and Acura keyless entry makes cars easy to steal and asks for theft protection (November 12, 2026).
Other 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid problems
Engine 37Electrical 24Driver assistance 22Fuel system 17Acceleration 15Brakes 8Steering 6Body 3Airbags 2Visibility 2Tires 1
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