Hyundai Recalls Nearly 300,000 Vehicles, Says Seat Belts May Detach in Crash

Hyundai Motor America recently announced a recall of 294,128 vehicles due to an issue with the vehicles’ seat belts that may cause the safety restraints to detach in the event of an accident.

According to an April 10 notice on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) X account, the safety anchors that attach seat belts to the seat frames may become damaged if they are removed or improperly reinstalled during routine maintenance. Damage to the snap-on anchors may not prevent the front seat belts from detaching entirely during a crash, the recall report stated.

The recall population includes 5,710 Hyundai Genesis G90 sedans and 35,149 Hyundai Ioniq 6 electric vehicles manufactured in South Korea but destined for sale in U.S. markets. It also includes 95,268 Santa Fe hybrid electric midsize sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and 158,001 gas-powered Santa Fe vehicles that were manufactured at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing in Montgomery, Alabama.

The foreign-made vehicles were produced between April 2022 and March 2026 (model years 2023–2026), while the U.S. made automobiles were manufactured between December 2023 and October 2025 (model years 2024–2026). The seat belt assemblies were made by Samsong Industries of Changwon, South Korea.

Hyundai said it first learned about the problem in September 2025 after the seat belt attachment defect was identified in a 2025 Santa Fe. In January, the NHTSA said it determined that if the seat belt anchors were forcefully removed during seat repair or maintenance, they could become permanently damaged. To date, there have been six reported incidents related to insufficiently attached seat belts.

Owners of vehicles in the recall population can take their vehicles to a licensed Hyundai or Genesis dealership to have a reinforcement insert installed in the seat belt anchor clip. The clip is standard for vehicles produced after March 2026, Hyundai noted.

Hyundai will begin alerting owners of the recall on June 5. In the interim, Hyundai and Genesis owners can determine if their vehicles need the reinforcement insert by entering their vehicle identification number into the NHTSA’s recall portal.

According to a separate recall notice posted on X by the NHTSA on April 13, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC is recalling 24,092 vehicles due to a defect in the drive shaft universal joint that could break and result in a loss of drive power.

According to the recall notice, the universal joints for vehicles in the Mercedes-Benz recall population didn’t receive proper lubrication during production, which could lead to increased wear and eventual failure of the u-joints, which connect the driveshaft to the front-axle transmission.

Before full failure, however, drivers should notice increased noise and vibration during vehicle operations, the NHTSA noted. The recall involves a wide range of Mercedes-Benz sedans and coupes, model years 2018-2020. Mercedes-Benz said it received 30 warranty claims regarding the u-joints between January 2022 and April 2025.

Owners of affected vehicles will be notified about the recall beginning on June 2.