In a statement today, Japan’s government announced that another 7 million vehicles with Takata inflators will be recalled in Japan over safety concerns. All of them have airbags made by Takata that can explode and shoot out metal. And now the agency is identifying which makes and models are involved. Honda will recall 4.5 million vehicles while FCA will recall 4.3 million cars in total. Included in this new list is almost a million vehicles from 15 different model lines – including the Dodge Challenger and the Dodge Charger models from the pre-2013 model years.
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Its decision comes after USA transport authorities earlier this month expanded its recall of air bag inflators made by the Japanese parts supplier, which will result in an additional 35 million to 40 million products withdrawn from the US market.
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) told regulators it is recalling 1.65 million vehicles while Subaru (7270.T) is recalling almost 400,000 vehicles in the United States.
The same problem has affected approximately seven million cars sold in Japan, and the country’s Transport Ministry has ordered manufacturers that sold vehicles there with potentially defective airbag inflators to replace the parts. It told the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that the second phase of the Takata expansion would include 660,000 additional U.S. vehicles.
“A steering committee for Takata Corp. has interviewed several private-equity funds and companies, including USA investment fund KKR & Co., about a possible investment in the troubled Japanese air-bag maker, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday”, according to a news report published by WSJ. The issue gained new traction after the March 31 death of an 17-year-old high school student in Texas in a moderate crash in her 2002 Honda Civic that police said would have been survivable without the defective air bag.
The latest recalls cover mainly front passenger inflators without the chemical drying agent.
The U.S. has been particularly hard-hit by the recalls, but isn’t the only nation affected. 383,101 units and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Takata uses the chemical ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion that inflates air bags in a crash.
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Takata named an outside committee in February to lead an overhaul.
