Japanese airbag maker Takata Corp has recalled an additional 3.3 million faulty airbag inflators, bringing the total number of recalls up 69 million inflators, covering many millions of vehicles in the U.S. from almost two dozen automakers.
The airbag inflators are being recalled because of a fault that can cause them to deploy improperly in the event of a crash, shooting metal fragments into vehicle occupants.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration forced additional recalls in high-humidity areas of the US, including Hawaii, Florida, and the US Virgin Islands to send to Takata for review.
Vehicles made by the following carmakers were affected by the airbag recalls, Honda, Toyota, Audi, BMW, Daimler Vans, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Tesla.
Bloomberg reports that nearly two-thirds of the 31.5 million vehicles affected in the US with faulty airbags remain unrepaired as of mid-September 2017.
Takata formally pled guilty in federal court last year to a criminal fraud charge stemming from the company’s conduct in relation to the faulty airbags.
There were a number of liabilities from the recalls that prompted Takata to file for bankruptcy in June – it is also expected that the company will file for bankruptcy in Japan. Chinese owned and the U.S. based Key Safety Systems plans to acquire the company’s assets for about $1.6 billion.
