One component, the DC-DC converter, sits at the center of a Jaguar Land Rover recall covering 23,677 vehicles, 2020-2024 Land Rover Defenders among them. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the converter can fail from an electrical overload during high power demand, or stop working at start-up because of a software error. When it fails, the vehicle loses 12-volt system charging and can lose drive power completely.
The filing is the second round of the same problem this year. It widens an April campaign that already covered many of the same Land Rover and Jaguar nameplates, and the fix for both runs through dealer software updates.
NHTSA’s recall record for campaign 26V599 lists Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC as the manufacturer and shows the report received on Sept. 17, 2026. The record states: “Failure of the DC-DC converter will result in the loss of 12-Volt system charging and can lead to complete loss of drive power and exterior lighting.” NHTSA’s stated consequence: “A loss of drive power increases the risk of a crash.”
The same record lists the vehicles covered and puts the potential population at 23,677 units:
- Land Rover Range Rover Sport, 2019-2024
- Land Rover Defender, Range Rover, Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport, 2020-2024
- Land Rover Range Rover Velar and Discovery, 2021-2024
- Jaguar E-Pace and F-Pace, 2021-2024
The remedy, as NHTSA states it: “Dealers will update the vehicle software, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk are expected to be mailed November 13, 2026. Additional letters will be sent once the final remedy is available.” Land Rover’s own number for the recall is E008, and the record gives Land Rover customer service at 800-637-6837.
An expansion of April’s 170,169-vehicle campaign
The September filing says it “expands previous NHTSA recall number 26V248.” That earlier recall record for campaign 26V248, received April 17, 2026, covered 170,169 potential units. Its summary describes the fault differently: “Insufficient electrical load balancing during times of high demand can lead to a current overload condition and malfunction of the DCDC converter.” Its remedy was also a free dealer update of the central software, and it states interim owner letters “were mailed June 17, 2026.”
The two filings share a component entry, which NHTSA lists as “ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:PROPULSION SYSTEM:DC/DC CONVERTER,” and the same stated consequence of a crash risk from lost drive power. What September adds is a second failure path. Beyond the overload during high power demand, the 26V599 summary describes a software error that can cause the converter “to stop functioning at vehicle start-up under certain circumstances.”
The April population overlapped heavily with the September one. NHTSA’s 26V248 record lists the Defender, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Velar, Discovery and F-Pace across the same model years now in 26V599, but only 2020-2023 Evoques, 2020 Discovery Sports and 2021-2022 E-Paces. The September expansion reaches the later Evoque, Discovery Sport and E-Pace model years.
NHTSA’s April 22, 2026 acknowledgment letter for 26V248, addressed to Jaguar Land Rover North America in Mahwah, New Jersey, adds that the affected vehicles are mild-hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs). It attributed the failure to “an internal fault in the boost control microchip” and said at the time that “the remedy for this recall is currently under development.”
What owners can check now
NHTSA’s recall lookup lets owners search by vehicle identification number for unrepaired recalls from certain manufacturers. The agency cautions on that page that some recently announced recalls may not yet show up because VIN data is incomplete.
For 26V599, the next dated step on the record is Nov. 13, 2026, when Jaguar Land Rover’s interim letters are expected to reach owners, with further letters to follow once the final remedy is ready.
Top image: A 2020 Land Rover Defender 110 First Edition. Image Credit: DeFacto — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.