Takata Corp.’s Explosive Air Bag Recall List Is Poised To Get Much Longer: Report

Angelo Young

Reuters reports that Takata Corp. is poised to announce a massive expansion of its ongoing recall of tens of millions of potentially dangerous air bag inflators. Pictured: Technician Edward Bonilla holds a recalled Takata airbag inflator in Miami, Florida in this June 25, 2015 file photo. Photo: REUTERS/Joe Skipper

Auto-safety regulators are forcing the Japanese company behind an ongoing recall of 24 million vehicles in the U.S. to roughly double the number of affected cars, trucks and SUVs from at least 14 automakers.

Citing three anonymous sources close to the issue, Reuters said the recall could happen as early as Wednesday and would add several more years to the expected amount of time it will take to fix tens of millions of vehicles on U.S. roads.

Previously, about 24 million vehicles in the U.S. with 28.8 million inflators needed to be replaced. Now, as many as 40 million additional inflators could be added this week, including 35 million passenger-side air bag units, including some vehicles that have already had their units replaced. It could take years to repair these additional vehicles.

The number of affected vehicles is unknown since in some cases just the driver’s side air bag is affected and on others occupants of both front passenger seats are at risk of death or injuries, including blindness.

According to the report, the recall includes air bag inflators that lack drying agents inside the capsules continuing ammonium nitrate, the volatile chemical used to rapidly inflate air bags. The chemical has a delicate relationship with moisture, and over time the deployment force of the inflators can increase as humidity penetrates and alters the properties of the chemical compound. Last year, Takata said it would move away from using ammonium nitrate in its products.

Honda Motor has been most affected by the recall because if its longtime relationship with Takata, a decades old Japanese supplier of auto-safety component and baby seats that at one point was supplying one in five of the world’s automotive air bag. But at least 13 other automakers have used these inflators and have issued their own global and U.S.-based recalls.

The defect, linked to at least 11 deaths and 160 injuries worldwide, causes air bag inflators to deploy with such excessive force they send shrapnel ripping through the air bag fabric and into the heads and torsos of front occupants.

Deaths and injuries could be much higher, however. Some of the affected cars date back to the 2002 model year, and the size and geographic scope of the problem could mean that past accidents and deaths went uncounted if crash investigators failed to notice injuries linked to the defect.

Takata booked $567 million in charges related to the defect as of March 31. It added another $189 million earlier this week, Bloomberg reported.