An executive from Japan's Takata Corp. met with United States Senators on Thursday, Nov. 20 saying that the manufacturer is trying its best to increase production of replacement parts for the millions of vehicles compromised by defective air bags, but admitted to having slow replacement due to parts shortage.
Hiroshi Shimizu, Takata's senior vice president for global quality assurance, acknowledged on Thursday that even if the company ramps up production of replacement kits by putting up open two new manufacturing lines early next year, beyond the current pace of 300,000 a month, it may still not have enough parts.
"Even if we increase to 450,000, maybe still that's not speedy enough," he said.
The NHTSA has also ordered a "geographical recall" of vehicles from Honda, Chevrolet, Nissan, Buick, and BMW, especially from the high-humidity areas like the Gulf Coast and Florida.
Takata also cautioned about the replacing cars with defective airbags all over the country would divert replacement parts from humid regions where the air bags were reported to rupture upon deployment.
Millions of vehicles in the U.S. are being recalled for reportedly having defective air bags produced by Japan's Takata Corp. the amount jumped, and is already nearing 16 million vehicle recalls.
Over 4.3 million cars of car manufacturer giants Honda Motor, Chrysler and Toyota motor have been recalled due to the defective airbags.
The recalls started in June when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received reports of air bag explosions in Puerto Rico and Florida, places in the United States were the climate is reported to be humid.
The problems with the air bags appear to be linked to high-humidity areas and the agency is focusing recall efforts in states and territories that are hot and humid.
Reuters reports that at least five people were killed by the defective air bags after exploding, shooting metal shards into cars.
