Toyota recalls 6.5 lakh vehicles in Japan over faulty airbags

Japanese automaker Toyota has issued a recall to about 6.5 lakh vehicles in Japan over faulty airbags. With this recall, the manufacturer has expanded a recall that it had issued in 2013 involving 2.14 million cars.

The recalled vehicles include those that are fitted with airbags sourced from Tataka Corp, the world's second largest supplier of airbags and seatbelts. Takata had not furnished a complete list of serial numbers, which has prompted Toyota to expand the recall, taking the total number of vehicles recalled by the company to 2.79 million.

Toyota said that it had been notified of one case in which a defective airbag inflator had caused a seat cover to burn. The company also said that in all the recalled cars, the passenger airbags could be defective and deploy abnormally in the event of an accident.

Takata has admitted to the US authorities that it did not adhere to prescribed guidelines while storing chemicals and manufacturing the explosive propellants that are used to inflate the airbags. Toyota claims that it would instruct its dealers in the United States to replace airbag inflators in all the cars affected by last year's recall.

Besides Toyota, Takata supplies airbags to manufacturers like BMW, Honda and Nissan. It is possible that these manufacturers will issue recalls for their cars as well.

Source: Business Today