NHTSA May Order Takata to Triple Airbag Inflator Recalls

U.S. safety regulators may order Takata Corp. to replace as many as 90 million more of its flawed airbag inflators—three times the number already being recalled, sources tell Reuters.

The expanded recall would target all vehicles in the U.S. that are equipped with Takata inflators powered by ammonium nitrate. The material, which deteriorates when exposed to high temperature and humidity, has been linked to explosions that killed nine people and injured more than 130 others in the U.S.

Reuters estimates the U.S. fleet contains as many as 120 million of the Takata devices. Replacing all of them would add billions of dollars in additional costs for the supplier and carmakers.

NHTSA so far has ordered recalls covering 29.4 million Takata inflators in the U.S., including 5.4 million devices added in January. Ten carmakers have called back roughly 45 million of the suspect Takata devices worldwide. It isn’t clear how many vehicles are involved, because some are equipped with multiple airbag systems.

Reuters says Takata made between 260 million and 285 million ammonium nitrate-powered inflators over the past 15 years and supplied them to more than a dozen carmakers.

Most of the suspect inflators targeted by NHTSA were produced at Takata factories in the U.S. and Canada, according to Reuters. It cites company documents that report problems with metal shavings inside the inflators, bad welds, damaged components and defective inflator wafers.

Former Takata manufacturing managers tell the news service the company suffered from years of “chronic” quality failures that make it difficult to pinpoint which vehicles contains defective devices. Takata agreed last November to pay a $70 million fine for misleading regulators and withholding information about its problems.