A shortfall in replacement airbag inflator production from Japanese parts manufacturer Takata Corp will hamper carmakers’ efforts to recall the former’s defective airbags, despite a ramp up in capacity from 300,000 units to 450,000 scheduled to come online by January.
Producing enough parts to repair all 11 million cars recalled in the United States alone may take up to two years, even if manufacturers manage to avert having to issue a nationwide recall as demanded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Currently, manufacturers are only recalling certain cars in high-humidity areas in the US, a move which has drawn ire from lawmakers.
Looking to other suppliers like Autoliv and TRW may not be a feasible option, either, as it would take at least a year to develop and test components for a specific car from the ground up.
At a recent hearing into the recalls, US senators lambasted Takata for what was reportedly an “inconsistent and disorganised response” to the defective airbags, with one singling out the parts maker’s insistence on continued use of ammonium nitrate – which can become unstable when exposed to moisture – in the composition of the airbag propellant as being “very concerning.”
At the same hearing, a Honda executive has admitted that the company failed to adequately notify federal regulators over more than 1,700 incidents involving the exploding airbags, and was still unsure over the full extent of the defective inflators. However, he did say that the automaker was working on finding out and recall the affected vehicles as quickly as possible, and was willing to work with legislators and customers to do so.
Japan has stepped up its response as well, with the country’s transport ministry urging Takata directly to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and share its findings. Such a call for action on a supplier is rare for a ministry that typically only deals with carmakers on such issues. It has also asked car companies to consider widening its existing recalls in the country in light of NHTSA’s recent demands.
Details regarding Takata’s defective airbag inflators – which can explode with excessive force, rupturing the casing and sending shards flying around the interior – remain murky more than 10 years after the issue first surfaced. This led to the aforementioned Senate hearing into the issue, while the company’s US arm also received a subpoena from the grand jury to produce documents related to the defects.
At least five deaths and 30 injuries have been attributed to the defective airbags. Earlier this month, it was revealed that a pregnant Malaysian woman was killed by inflator shrapnel in a collision involving her 2003 Honda City last July. Following the incident, Honda added another 170,000 cars to its ongoing recall, bringing of total number of cars affected worldwide to over 16 million.
The latest issue has been traced back to a conveyor at Takata’s now-defunct plant in LaGrange, Georgia, which had malfunctioned, exposing propellant tablets left on the belt to moisture.
Honda Malaysia recently issued a recall involving 15,734 units of the 2003-2004 Honda City, as well as the 2004 Honda Jazz to replace the driver’s side airbag. They join a separate recall announced last June, which involved the 2001-2003 Honda Stream, 2002-2003 Honda Jazz, 2003 Honda City and 2003 Honda Accord, this time for a front passenger airbag issue.
UMW Toyota has also recalled 18,700 units of the 2000-2003 Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla Altis, while Edaran Tan Chong Motor (ETCM) recalled four units of the CBU first-generation Nissan X-Trail.
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What company supply their airbag to Proton? Just curious.
autoliv-hiratako
Toyota with Takata airbag better RV
Toyota got problem, Toyota recall also. Toyota is willing to recall as many as it need, to ensure customer satisfaction.
The best is those old Proton, no airbag no ABS no VSC NOTHING to worry.
Yeah, like old Toyota’s also.
C’mon, you can do better than this.
The company’s CEO should be sentenced to death for such a malfunction. An airbag is designed to save lives not kill….the company should be barred from making airbags ever again and all companies should stop buying from them. Stupid Japanese negligence.
Listen to what you’re saying. An equipment failure (that’s what a malfunction is) occurred in the country of Georgia. Thus, the CEO of the company, living and working in Japan, has to die because of negligence on the part of the original LaGrange plant’s maintenance department? Then you blame the Japanese negligence even though this plant will logically employ local populace from LaGrange, Georgia?
Don’t fire the gun without details, man. The investigation isn’t finished yet and we know next to nothing about the details pertaining to this grievous mistake. Someone is to blame, but we don’t know who.
Exactly,i’m an automotive industry veteran,was in the U.S for more than 27 years based in Detroit.I’m back home in Malaysia to ascertain the feasability of an automotive business for the whole of Asean.The amount of idiotic government corruption here leaves me so ashamed so i’m leaving back to the U.S after new year’s 2015.
Now i have dealt with these Takata guys before,trust me on this,they are Japanese and they have this arrogant pride about them,they will never admit when their designs are proven to go horribly wrong.
The real problem for all of this is when the bean counters slash the development cost of a prototype in half when real aautomobile engineers like want it done right.
I refused to deal with them so many times in the past due to their bean counters.i have my dignity well intact,i will never stand for my customers put their safety at risk because of some backwater retard bean counter wishes to use his abacus.
Cheers
You didn’t read the article, did you?
‘ the parts maker’s insistence on continued use of ammonium nitrate – which can become unstable when exposed to moisture’
Takata changed the composition of airbag propellant currently:
http://paultan.org/2014/11/13/takata-changes-composition-airbag-propellant/
I read the article. They changed the composition but still retained the compound that renders the propellants unstable when moisturized. You don’t understand what you’re reading, do you?
It doesn’t matter whether the investigation is concluded or not, such mistakes cannot be tolerated whatever said. Baby milk scandal in China, the CEO was sentenced to death, Sewol ferry disaster, the founder would have been sentenced to death if he was not murdered.
The CEO is appointed for a reason, he is totally responsible for all acts and mistake of the company no matter where they are located. Otherwise if he can’t rise to the challenge then he has no right to take the position.
It matters. Don’t be so hasty to end a life until you know how involved the CEO is in this problem. The natures of this incident is different from the one in China, the latter being intentional while the former is still too vague to say if it is intentional or not. Did they know of the malfunction beforehand? Was the malfunction reported by the plant at all? Did they know of the malfunction before this preliminary investigation? Were they too proud or economic conscious to intervene? We don’t know.
Death sentences are not a trivial thing. You could end up killing the wrong person and there’s nothing you can do to reverse it.
Look at the honda city. In onther country, no sport rims never mind, as long as got air bags.
In malaysia, no airbag is ok as long as got sport rims! Better if airbags can be replaced with TRD body kits!