TOKYO: Toyota and Nissan have announced to recall more than three million vehicles over deadly airbags.
Toyota said it will call back an additional 2.86 million vehicles “equipped with certain front passenger airbag inflators” worldwide, while Nissan said it would recall 198,000 units. Smaller rival Japanese automaker Mitsubishi also said Thursday it would recall 120,000 vehicles.
Faulty airbags made by Takata have been linked to several deadly accidents, forcing carmakers to recall tens of millions of vehicles and opening the Japanese autoparts maker up to a public inquiry by US lawmakers.
Takata chairman and CEO Shigehisa Takada on Thursday apologised for the crisis in his first public appearance since it began.
“I send my deepest condolence to those who died and were injured in accidents due to our company’s inflator,” he said at a news conference in Tokyo. “I also apologise for all of those affected by (the recalls).”
Takada said studies by his firm and outside labs suggest that humidity and climate are associated with the airbags’ malfunctions. “We are very sorry. We are doing our best to learn the cause of the problem,” he said.
Tokyo-based Takata last month agreed to double a US recall to a record of more than 30 million vehicles made by some of the world’s biggest automakers.
