4.6 million gas cars told to park outside. You heard about 662,000 EVs.

Since 2021, NHTSA "park outside" fire recalls have covered 4.6 million gas-only vehicles against about 662,000 EVs and hybrids — a seven-to-one gap you almost certainly never read a headline about.

Seven to one

A Washington Post analysis counted every "park outside" recall NHTSA has issued since 2021. That's the order where the manufacturer tells you your car may ignite while it sits, turned off, so keep it away from your house.

There have been 93 of them. Gas-only campaigns covered a combined 4.6 million vehicles. EV and hybrid campaigns covered about 662,000. The numbers are here, and they are not close.

Right now, per a Carfax estimate confirmed by NHTSA, roughly 3.2 million vehicles are sitting under an active park-outside order in the United States. In 2026 alone, U.S. authorities announced 17 new park-outside recalls covering 1.7 million vehicles.

Count the times you saw that on a front page. Now count the times you saw a single burning EV on a front page.

The honest part

By campaign count, it's nearly a tie: 44 of the 93 recalls covered vehicles exclusively with internal-combustion engines, 38 were EV or hybrid only. If you want to argue EVs generate recalls at a disproportionate rate relative to how many are on the road, that number is your starting point and we're not hiding it.

But a recall is not a unit of risk. A recall is an administrative event. The vehicles are the risk, and gas campaigns covered seven times more of them.

And EVs do catch fire. Last month Lucid recalled 27,185 Air sedans from model years 2022–2026 because an exterior lighting circuit with insufficient overcurrent protection can overheat. Owners were told to park outside, away from structures. Lucid says it's aware of multiple fire or smoke reports and dozens of possibly related warranty claims. GM recalled a batch of 2026 Silverado EV, Sierra EV, Escalade IQ and IQL vehicles over a high-voltage battery pack issue that could increase fire risk — 10 vehicles, full pack replacement, dealers holding inventory.

Ten. That's the entire campaign. Put it next to 4.6 million and tell us again which powertrain the coverage is calibrated to.

What a key-off fire actually is

Frank Borris, a former NHTSA investigator now working as a safety consultant, gave the mechanism a name: key-off fires. "The engine is off," he said, "but the circuits are still hot and they stay hot all the time."

The case files are unglamorous, which is exactly why they don't travel.

Kia recalled 463,000 Tellurides because the front power-seat switch could overheat and ignite the seat. That was the second attempt. The first recall, in 2024, didn't fix it.

More than 66,000 2021 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators were recalled over circuit boards in the battery junction box that could short out. At least 16 fires were blamed on it. They often ignited while parked and switched off.

Hyundai and Kia shared a defect where the anti-lock brake system could leak brake fluid, cause an electrical short, and start an engine fire in a parked car. CleanTechnica's writeup notes Hyundai's recall covered more than a dozen models, mostly gas engines, with fewer than 100,000 hybrid and fuel-cell versions. Kia's dozen models were almost all gas. Kane, quoted in that piece, on the two brands: "They've figured out more ways to catch fire than any other vehicle."

The recalls nobody covered at all

Widen the lens past fire and 2026 gets absurd. From the Carfax recall tracker:

• 1,271,294 Ram 1500 pickups, model years 2019–2026, recalled 30 July. Second-row seat belt buckle anchors may have been improperly installed, increasing injury risk in a crash. Dealers have to attach the anchor to the body structure.
• 565,691 Ford Bronco and Bronco Raptor SUVs, 2021–2026, recalled 20 July over the engine compartment wiring.
• 325,588 Honda Odyssey minivans, 2018–2020: water gets into the rearview camera and the image fails to display in Reverse.
• 318,495 BMW and Toyota vehicles under a single 8 July campaign.

One of those is a seat belt anchor on 1.27 million trucks. If a battery-electric truck had that defect at that volume you would have seen it on television.

Toyota also recalled about 655,000 Camrys globally over a display error that can deactivate turn signals and hazard lights at startup — more than 508,000 of them 2025–2026 Camry Hybrids in the U.S. That's a hybrid defect and we'll say so. It's also a software defect, and software defects are the growth area. Journalist Paul Eisenstein told FOX 2 Detroit that where recalls used to be mostly mechanical, modern campaigns are increasingly digital — including a Stellantis backup-camera recall covering almost a million vehicles. Many of those get fixed over the air. So do EV recalls: Lucid pushed a software update and had already confirmed 20,719 vehicles patched.

The million-engine investigation

Then there's the one that should be a scandal. NHTSA has launched a new investigation covering nearly one million GM 6.2-liter L87 V8 engines after continued reports of engine failures. Writer Eric Starkman's framing of the earlier campaign — "it took GM more than 28,000 failed V8s" — is the whole story of how slowly this stuff moves.

GM's LZ0 six-cylinder Duramax diesel has its own emerging problem. CarBuzz reports a crankwalk issue with owners describing metallic scraping, oil pressure drops and knocking before the first oil change. GM's own spec allows crankshaft end play of 0.084–0.316 mm. That's the tolerance stack a century of engineering optimisation has bought you.

The data we still don't have

Here's the part that should embarrass everyone writing scare copy: regulators have not historically collected vehicle fire data by powertrain. Adam Barowy of the Fire Safety Research Institute says there's "pretty limited data on whether they are more likely to catch fire — at least for North American cars." Fire agencies only switched this year to a federal reporting system that records powertrain.

The best outside comparison remains a UK government review of Norwegian data finding gas and diesel vehicles had a fire incidence rate four times higher than EVs from 2016 to 2021.

So the honest position is: one country's data says combustion burns four times as often, the U.S. recall ledger says 4.6 million versus 662,000, and American per-powertrain fire statistics barely exist. Every confident claim that EVs are the fire risk was made without that data. Every one.

The fires that get covered are the ones that fit the story. Seven times more gas cars were told to park outside, and that never became a story at all.

Straight answers

Are gas cars or EVs more likely to be recalled for fire risk?

By volume, gas cars. A Washington Post analysis of the 93 "park outside" fire recalls NHTSA has issued since 2021 found gas-only campaigns covered 4.6 million vehicles, compared with about 662,000 EVs and hybrids. By campaign count it was closer: 44 recalls covered internal-combustion vehicles exclusively and 38 covered only EVs or hybrids.

How many vehicles are under a "park outside" recall in the US right now?

About 3.2 million, according to a Carfax estimate confirmed by NHTSA in August 2026. In 2026 alone, US authorities announced 17 new park-outside recalls covering 1.7 million vehicles.

What is a key-off fire?

A fire that starts in a parked, switched-off vehicle because circuits remain electrically live. Former NHTSA investigator Frank Borris described it this way: "The engine is off, but the circuits are still hot and they stay hot all the time." Examples include Kia's recall of 463,000 Tellurides over a front power-seat switch that could ignite the seat, and 66,000-plus 2021 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators whose battery junction box circuit boards could short — at least 16 fires were blamed on that defect.

Have there been big EV fire recalls in 2026 too?

Yes. Lucid recalled 27,185 Air sedans from model years 2022–2026 in August 2026 because an exterior lighting circuit with insufficient overcurrent protection could overheat and catch fire; owners were told to park outside. GM also recalled 10 model-year 2026 electric trucks and SUVs — Silverado EV, Sierra EV, Escalade IQ and IQL — over a high-voltage battery pack issue, replacing the full pack at no cost.

What is the NHTSA investigation into GM's 6.2-liter V8?

NHTSA has opened a new investigation covering nearly one million GM 6.2-liter L87 V8 engines following continued reports of engine failures. It follows an earlier campaign that, as writer Eric Starkman put it, took more than 28,000 failed V8s to trigger.

Do we actually know whether EVs catch fire more often than gas cars?

In the United States, not reliably. Regulators have not historically collected vehicle fire data by powertrain, and fire agencies only switched this year to a federal reporting system that records it. The clearest outside evidence is a UK government review of Norwegian data showing gas and diesel vehicles had a fire incidence rate four times higher than EVs from 2016 to 2021.