Volkswagen and Audi say they are recalling 850,000 vehicles with suspect air bag inflators in the United States. These recalls involve newer model-year vehicles than previous ones involving Takata, although one 2015 BMW model is also on the latest list.
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Both Audi and Volkswagen have been notified by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that certain driver side front airbags made by the manufacturer Takata could be defective.
Last month, Takata said it was declaring 5.1 million additional inflators defective after new testing and following the death of a driver in December in a 2006 Ford Ranger, after an airbag rupture. Takata said other automakers affected by the recent findings included Honda, Volkswagen, Audi, Mazda. They are linked to at least 10 deaths worldwide and more than 100 U.S. injuries.
This is the latest batch of safety recalls over faulty and in ten cases deadly airbags with exploding inflators.
It is also recalling vans made between 2007 and 2014, including vehicles bearing the Dodge, Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter brands.
BMW added 840,000 cars later in the day for the same problem. The action brings the total vehicles to be recalled for the Takata airbag defect to more than 21 million.
Two weeks ago, the first Takata-related fatality was confirmed in a non-Honda vehicle – specifically, in a Ford Ranger – and that has triggered a rapid expansion of the airbag recall. The company faces an ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation. It will account for this by revising its 2015 financial results published last week, lowering net profit to 8.7 billion euros and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to 13.2 billion euros, from 8.9 billion and 13.5 billion euros respectively.
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VW’s recalls include its main Volkswagen brand with 680,000 recalled vehicles and its luxury Audi brand with 170,000 vehicles recalled.
