Millions of vehicles in the U.S., which now include General Motors cars, are being recalled for reportedly having defective air bags produced by Japan's Takata Corp
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.
Initially, nine carmakers were affected by the incident, including BMW, Ford Motor, Mazda Motor, Mitsubishi Motor, Nissan Motor and Subaru, but a recent development in the investigation revealed that General Motors may have to recall its cars as well.
Takata Regional Corp filed documents to the NHTSA this month that reportedly include General Motors in the incident.The number of the General Motors vehicles affected by defective airbags was not disclosed.
Takata Regional Corp has been riddled with problems related to the air bags the company manufactures the past few years.Since 2006, 16 million cars were recalled across the globe for potential defective air bags.
Takata released a statement on Friday that General Motors, United States' largest car manufacturer and the world's second largest maker of auto safety products, is working hand in hand with the air bag company to replace the inflator kits of its customers.
The documents filed by Takata stated that General Motors ordered Takata to build and replace 1.47 million inflator kits in the span of 6 months.General Motors previously estimated in Aug. that 2.39 million inflator kits originally needed to be replaced.
The original estimate included inflator kits required for recalls located outside the U.S., while the recent estimate included those only in accordance to the U.S. recalls, according to Alby Berman,spokesman for Takata
The NHTSA led Takata and other car manufacturers to investigate as to whether the presence of high humidity had a direct effect in the inflators collected during the recalls.
Takata reportedly admitted that it experienced production problems related to the air bags because there was a lack of wire harnesses used in the air bags.
