“According to Takata, a safety defect may arise in front passenger air bag inflators in the involved vehicles due to inflator propellant degradation occurring after prolonged exposure to high absolute humidity, high temperatures and high temperature cycling”.
Advertisement
The addition of 7 million cars to the Takata recall comes after the USA transport authorities chose to expand the recall of air bag inflators made by the Japanese supplier, resulting in an additional 35-40 million products being withdrawn from the US market.
While previous recalls targeted driver-side inflators, this new recall is focused on passenger-side inflators, Automotive News reports.
This recall will mostly cover passenger-side airbags and will take place in stages.
They form part of a massive expansion of Takata recalls announced earlier this month. As a result, owners of affected vehicles for which there are no immediately available replacement parts will be informed of the recall in an initial notification letter in July 2016. Japan’s transport ministry said Friday that automakers will recall approximately seven million more vehicles there, so the global total is now approaching 70 million.
More automakers are expected to issue recall notices in coming days.
Takata has been levied with hundreds of millions in fines and legal settlements as well as billions in recall costs thanks to the faulty airbag issue.
Fiat Chrysler said Friday it is recalling 933,000 vehicles in Canada, Mexico and outside North America for Takata inflators.
Takata may face still more vehicle recalls.
Selecting a financial sponsor would probably require discussion with Takata’s auto maker clients and stakeholders.
Before this recent recall, the number of affected vehicles – which includes pickups, SUVs and cars built between 2002 and 2011 – was about 50 million worldwide.
SUBARU: Certain 2003-2004 Legacy and Outback, 2006 Saab 9-2x made by Subaru, and 2003-2006 Baja pickups.
Advertisement
Yuri Kageyama contributed from Tokyo.
