WASHINGTON: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) are still selling new vehicles with defective air bags that will eventually have to be recalled, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said in a report Wednesday.
The report said the automakers confirmed they are continuing to sell some vehicles with ammonium-nitrate inflators without a drying agent. The vehicles are legal to sell but must be recalled by 2018, the report said.
The report by the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the latest to raise concerns about what has grown into the largest ever auto safety recall in history – now close to 70 million air bag inflators.
It was not clear precisely how many care are being sold with defective inflators. The report said the vehicles being sold with inflators that will later need to be recalled include the 2016-2017 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, 2016 Volkswagen CC, 2016 Audi TT and 2017 Audi R8.
Toyota, one of two automakers that did not provide specific years and models, expects to produce approximately 175,000 vehicles with the defective Takata inflators between March 2016 and July 2017, the report said.
Automakers face both supply issues and in some cases engineering challenges to phase out the inflators. BMW AG in March received a five-month extension to acquire Takata replacement parts because tests showed some substitute inflators may also be defective.
NHTSA has taken control of the massive recall, using legal authority to do so for the first time – and last year appointed a former federal prosecutor to oversee the effort.
“What’s troubling here is that consumers are buying new cars not realizing they’re going to be recalled,” U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and the report’s author, said in a statement. “These cars shouldn’t be sold until they’re fixed.”
Takata inflators can explode with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel into passenger compartments. They are suspected in 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries.
There is no required public disclosure of all new vehicles that have air bag inflators that will need to be recalled. Automakers may not disclose all new vehicles being recalled until 2019.
“Until that time, it’s impossible for consumers to find out if their vehicle has a defective airbag which will need to be replaced,” said Rich Newsome, an Orlando lawyer who represents people who have sued Takata
