The story appears on

Page A11

May 14, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Auto

Japan’s big 3 carmakers to increase global recall

JAPAN’S three biggest carmakers said yesterday they would expand a huge global recall triggered by potentially fatal air bags made by Takata Corp, saying they were taking back millions of vehicles worldwide for investigation.

Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co said they were recalling some 6.5 million vehicles globally, while Honda Motor Co Ltd said it would follow suit, without giving further details.

Yesterday’s announcements raise to roughly 31 million the number of vehicles recalled worldwide since 2008 over Takata air bag inflators, which can erupt with too much force, spraying shrapnel inside the car.

The Takata-linked recall is now on par with a General Motors Co recall of some 30 million vehicles last year for a range of defects, including faulty ignition switches.

Asked about the latest recalls, a Takata spokeswoman said a probe into the causes for the air bag defects was ongoing and that the company continued to cooperate with the automakers.

Six deaths have been linked to the defective Takata airbags, all on cars made by Honda, which released disappointing profit forecasts last week citing high quality-related costs.

Toyota and Nissan said their recalls were precautionary and that no accidents or injuries had been reported.

They did not give further details about the suspected defects, but in documents submitted to Japan’s transport ministry, the automakers said they had identified problems with inflators that were not sufficiently sealed and that were at risk of allowing in moisture during extended use.

Toyota, Japan’s biggest automaker, said it would recall just under 5 million Corolla, Vitz and other models, mostly in Japan and Europe.

Many of the models were built between March 2003 and November 2007, and include 1.36 million to be recalled in Japan.

Nissan said it was recalling about 1.56 million cars globally over the same issue. It did not give further details about the models affected.

Takata faces multiple class action lawsuits in the US and Canada as well as a US criminal probe and a regulatory probe.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend