Toyota recalls more vehicles over airbag maker Takata's safety problems

  • 10 years ago
Toyota is recalling another 650,000 vehicles in Japan, deepening a safety crisis for Japanese airbag maker Takata.

This latest recall means a total of 6.5 million cars equipped with Takata airbags have now needed to be fixed worldwide over the last five years.

Takata, which is the world’s second biggest manufacturer of vehicle safety equipment, is anticipating more recalls from other carmakers.

It said it was having difficulties tracking airbag inflators with potential defects that date back over a decade and which could cause the inflators to explode in an accident.

The Tokyo-based supplier said it had discovered record-keeping errors at a plant in Mexico where potentially faulty airbag inflators were made in 2001 and 2002.

The explosive propellants used to inflate airbags were badly made after chemicals were improperly stored Takata has said.

In 2013, carmakers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan and BMW recalled about 3.6 million vehicles because of flaws in Takata airbag inflators.

It was the largest airbag-related recall in history and came after a series of recalls, accidents and at least two deaths allegedly caused by faulty airbags.

with Reuters

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