Hurricane Takata is the biggest ever recall to hit the auto industry, and it’s now making landfall in China, after wreaking havoc elsewhere. As China is the world’s largest auto market, the numbers are big.
Last week, market leader Volkswagen and its JVs FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen announced a recall of 4.86 million vehicles in China due to potential issues with Takata’s airbag inflators. Reuters reports that the recall comes after Chinese watchdogs asked the German giant as well as GM and Mercedes-Benz to recall cars with Takata airbags earlier this year.
VW told the newswire that after discussions, Chinese authorities had concluded the fault could occur in rare cases when the air bag was deployed, “which may create a potential safety risk”.
“Acting upon advice from the Chinese safety authority, Volkswagen Group China therefore made this recall decision,” VW said, adding that it had not received any reports related to the issue affecting its vehicles globally, and that a parts analysis had found Takata airbag inflators were in “normal condition”.
China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said that VW China would recall 103,573 vehicles, FAW-Volkswagen 2.35 million vehicles and SAIC Volkswagen 2.4 million vehicles. The watchdog said the recall would run from March 2018 into 2019.
General Motors and its joint venture in China, Shanghai GM, is following suit with a recall of more than 2.5 million vehicles. From October 29, GM will recall 13,492 imported Saab and Opel vehicles, followed by 2.51 million China-made Chevrolet and Buick cars from December 29.
According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, GAQSIQ said the faulty Takata airbag inflator problem covers 37 car manufacturers and more than 20 million vehicles, of which 24 carmakers had recalled 10.59 million vehicles by the end of June.
It appears like the two major auto giants in China weren’t very proactive with the recall, allowing others to move first. Better late than never, though, and there have been no reports of incidents so far in China, which has climate on its side in this matter.
The Takata airbag inflator defect is due to propellant degradation occurring after prolonged exposure to high humidity and temperatures. The inflators contain a non-desiccated, phase stabilised ammonium nitrate propellant that may cause the rupture of the module. If it does, metal fragments will pass through the airbag as it inflates and shoot into the cabin, leading to possible serious injury or death. 16 deaths and 180 injuries have been linked to this problem globally.
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mcm Batuk di tangga, faiya faiya…
Jepunis quality that u can trust… to send to early KO.
sooner of later its going to hit here as well…pity all the VW owner’s here with all the uncertainty..have to decide take grab or drive to work which may result in un happy ending…dulu maya eksen …1st DSG now this…adoi —beli proton la bro …dekat lagi murah and selamat yo!
… and VW is still selling more cars this year than last. Wonder why when they are more expensive than Toyota? Hmmm
Lucky Proton not using Takata airbag… If not Takata will suite until died… Malaysia law don’t play play. (Protect Rakyat Law) maa
Yup. P1 was smarter to go for Swedish airbags instead. Everyone everywhere kena except for P1, slamba je no problemo.
I recently wrote a case study on the Takata airbag crisis for a uni assignment. For the past few years, I genuinely thought the whole problem was caused by manufacturing defects… as in, Takata had poor QC.
But surprisingly, after researching the matter, I found a lot of mainly U.S. reports which exposed the hidden truth behind the Takata crisis.
In a nutshell; Takata KNEW all along !
Takata knew about the deadly risk/flaw in their airbag inflator since 2004 ! And yet, Takata did not fully admit the truth until 2015. Don’t believe it ? Just Google ‘Takata knew’.
Even Honda was fully aware of the deadly flaw, but to Honda’s credit, they were the first to initiate a recall in 2008. Similarly, Honda has been very proactive in their Malaysian recall as well (compared to Toyota, Nissan and other affected brands).
In 2014, an ex-Takata employee admitted that Takata actually conducted a ‘secret test’ for their flawed airbags in 2004, and the results shocked their engineers. The engineers made plans for a global recall, but in the end, all the evidence was covered up !
Even as early as 1999, Takata did not heed the warnings from their engineers, who knew full well that using ammonium nitrate-based propellants is too risky.
In fact, prior to ammonium nitrate, Takata had pioneered the brilliant tetrazole propellant. But it was expensive, and Takata’s profits shrank. Takata pressured their engineers to switch to ammonium nitrate in 1999.
Takata has also suffered from previous airbag scandals, even before the current one.
In Takata’s mind, profits mattered more than the lives of their customers. In the end, they paid the ultimate price (bankruptcy). R.I.P. Takata 1933-2017.
Takata & Toyota ethics, berpisah tiada
That what worries me about this Japanese things.
In extreme emergency situations, it may make a difference whether you are driving a German vehicle or a Japanese one.
And also, I feel that they have all this while been covering up most of the facts about their current nuclear disaster. And they will continue to do so.
All the bestestsss to participants of Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Ha, ha, ha. Kelakar betul u. I have 3 VWs. First one is 8 years old. The second is 5 years old. The last 1 year old. All not a single problem. Despite two being dry clutch. It is faaaaaaarrr more reliable and a pleasure to drive than any Jap or Korean.