Additional Takata Airbag Recalls May Include General Motors Vehicles

In June, the NHTSA launched an investigation into airbags made by Japanese automotive supplier Takata after it was reported that they were exploding in certain high humidity areas of the United States. Nine automakers were initially thought to have faulty Takata airbags in their vehicles, including Honda, Fiat-Chrysler and Toyota. Now the list has grown to include General Motors, too, reports Reuters.

Takata filed new documents with the NHTSA which listed affected companies and for the first time, GM was mentioned. They said the number of vehicles with faulty Takata airbags made by GM is still unclear.

Reuters say Takata has recalled 16 million vehicles globally for defective air bags in the last six years. Takata is working on building replacement inflator kits for the airbags and said automakers asked them to build 1.47 million inflators for affected vehicles over the next six months.

The NHTSA and Takata are looking to find out if high humidity caused the inflators to malfunction. In June, GM announced a stop-sale and recall for 33,000 Chevrolet Cruze models with Takata inflators. At that time, the NHTSA said the inflator was made with incorrect parts which “can result in the inflator rupturing during deployment and can lead to metal fragments striking occupants and no inflation of the airbag.”

Takata had begun receiving defective inflators for testing on Sept. 15 and said it may take three or four months before they “see patterns emerging in the data.” The NHTSA refused to comment as the investigation is ongoing.