NHTSA wants ideas to get owners to fix recalls after more than 29.2 million vehicles were recalled in 2025

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking the auto industry, repair networks and the public how more owners can be persuaded to get recall repairs done. The agency administered nearly 900 vehicle safety recalls covering more than 29.2 million vehicles in 2025, according to a notice published September 28, and it has scheduled a Washington meeting on November 5 to discuss what happens after a recall is announced. Written comments will be accepted until December 5.

The request appears in a Federal Register notice titled “Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls,” filed under docket NHTSA-2026-2014. NHTSA says the meeting will “provide the public and industry with an opportunity to review vehicle safety recall completion trends and past recall performance.” The notice describes 2025 recall totals as generally stable over the past five years, so the agency’s attention is on what happens after a recall is issued: whether owners hear about it, whether parts and appointments are available, and whether the repair gets done. A recall that sits unrepaired leaves the defect on the road as surely as if no recall had been issued.

A meeting in a single room, with no recording

The session runs, according to the Federal Register notice, at U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE in Washington, in the West Building Atrium. NHTSA’s event page lists an 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern schedule and describes the purpose as discussing “best practices and opportunities to improve the effectiveness of vehicle safety recall campaigns.” Attendance is in person only. The Federal Register notice says the event will not be live streamed or recorded, and it describes facilitated workshop discussions on recall operations rather than a formal hearing.

Registration closes in late October, though the two NHTSA documents disagree by a day: the Federal Register notice gives October 29, while the event page gives October 28. Anyone planning to attend has reason to use the earlier date. Requests for disability accommodations are due the same day at [email protected], and the notice lists Jeremy Gunderson as the agency contact.

The topics on the agenda

The notice lists six subjects: recall completion trends and past performance, reaching owners of used vehicles whose contact information is out of date, digital communications, connected-vehicle and automated-vehicle technologies, consumer outreach and remedy delivery, and over-the-air software updates alongside mobile repair. The used-car item matters because mailed recall letters go to the last registered owner, and a car that has changed hands several times may generate letters that reach no one.

Over-the-air updates are already part of the picture. NHTSA’s 2025 annual recalls report says ten manufacturers issued recalls remedied through software updates sent wirelessly, among them BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Lucid, Maserati, Polestar, Rivian, Volvo and Zero Motorcycles. A remedy delivered that way asks nothing of the owner beyond accepting the update, which is the opposite of scheduling a dealer visit.

Recall completion rates by the numbers

The same annual report counts 997 recalls of all types in 2025 covering 31.3 million vehicles and other items. Its vehicle-only line shows 891 recalls affecting 29.3 million vehicles, close to the Federal Register’s “more than 29.2 million.” Tire, child seat and equipment recalls make up the rest. The report says nearly 80 percent of vehicle recalls have a final remedy available within 60 days, so the delay for most campaigns falls after the parts exist.

Completion is measured separately. The latest figure in the annual report, from 2024, is an average completion rate of 73.4 percent, up from 67.0 percent in 2023. Put the other way, roughly one recalled vehicle in four had not been fixed at the point of measurement. NHTSA’s 2025 completion rates list reports each recall as of the eighth quarter of completion reporting and cautions that rates should not be compared directly across manufacturers, because parts shortages, vehicle age, vehicle type and the nature of the defect all affect them.

The same document states that “vehicle recalls do not ‘end’ or ‘expire’,” so repairs made after the eighth quarter still raise the percentage later. An older car with an unrepaired defect is therefore still covered by a free remedy years afterward, provided the owner learns it exists.

How to weigh in before December 5

Comments go to docket NHTSA-2026-2014 through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov, or by mail or hand delivery to the Docket Management Facility at the Department of Transportation, Room W12-140, in Washington. The deadline is 30 days after the meeting, which gives people who cannot attend in person the same window as those who can. Because the November 5 session will not be recorded, written comments are the main route for anyone outside the room to contribute.

What NHTSA does with the input is unstated. The notice announces a meeting and a comment period, not a rule, and it names no target for raising the roughly 73 percent completion figure. Whether the agency follows the December 5 close with proposals on used-vehicle outreach or over-the-air remedies is the open question.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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