Honda Abandons Takata as Supplier of Airbag Inflators

Honda Motor Co. is dropping Takata Corp. as a supplier of front airbag inflators after U.S. regulators announced earlier this week the company misrepresented and manipulated test data for some of the devices, Reuters reports.

Honda has been a major Takata customer for years. But now the carmaker is bearing the brunt of recalls by a dozen carmakers of some 40 million vehicles equipped with Takata airbag inflators that could explode. The failures have killed eight people, all of them riding in Honda vehicles.

In a bluntly worded statement, Honda says it is “deeply troubled” by the U.S. announcement and $70 million fine against Takata for supplying the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with “selective, incomplete or inaccurate data” about its inflators over the past six years.

Perhaps more troubling, Takata concedes it still doesn’t know exactly why its inflators fail. As part of its U.S. settlement, the company will phase out its ammonium nitrate propellant by the end of 2018. But NHTSA has warned it could order new recalls of those devices made over the next three years unless Takata can prove they are safe.

Honda didn’t say where it would source its future inflators. But earlier this year the company began increasing its purchases of the devices from Autoliv, Daicel and ZF TRW. Inflators from all three companies use a more stable propellant than the cheaper material favored by Takata.