Takata to recall up to 40M more inflators
Replacing air bags may take company until end of 2019
WASHINGTON — Takata will recall another 35 million to 40 million air bag inflators, a stunning increase that will more than double the largest automotive recall in American history, theU.S. government announced Wednesday.
The recall expansion would bring to as many as 69 million the total number of inflators to be replaced, a task that will take until the end of 2019 to complete, according to a statement issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The models and number of cars and trucks included in the expanded recallwere not immediately released but will be posted on NHTSA’s website in the coming weeks. Most of the expansion is for front passenger air bags that were not part of previous recalls, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said.
Takata air bag inflators can explode with too much force and injure people. So far, at least 11 deaths and more than 100 injurieshave been reportedworldwide.
Replacing so many inflators will be a daunting task because automakers involved in the current recall of 28.8 million inflators have been able to fix only 28 percent of the cars involved after more than two years. Air bag manufacturers have had trouble making enough replacement inflators, and automakers have had trouble finding owners and persuading them to get their cars repaired.
“The acceleration of this recall is based on scientific evidence and will protect all Americans from air bag inflators that may become unsafe,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, whose department oversees NHTSA, said in the statement.
Under an order last year, the government has wide authority over Takata to prompt additional recalls. Theorder has been amended to include the additional inflators, according to the NHTSA news release.
The expansion will be phased in between this month and December 2019, with older cars and those in areas of high heat and humidity getting priority, the agency said.
Takata uses the chemical ammonium nitrate to create an explosion that inflates air bags in a crash. But the chemical can degrade over time when exposed to heat and humidity and burn too fast, blowing apart a metal canister and spewing shrapnel into drivers and passengers.
The expanded recall covers all front air bags that do not have a chemical drying agent known as a desiccant. But it does not cover side air bags without the drying agent, nor does it cover another 32 million air bags that have the desiccant.
The government and an independent expert it hired reviewed three independent investigations and confirmed findings that the problem is caused by time, airborne moisture and temperature fluctuations that can degrade the ammonium nitrate, the agency said.
Inflators with the drying agent have not been recalled because none has ruptured due to problems with ammonium nitrate, NHTSA said. There was one rupture, but it was due to a manufacturing problem with the canister, the agency has said.