Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday has announced that it will recall 5.8 million cars both at home and from China and Europe, as these are equipped with malfunctioning air bag inflators produced by Takata Corp.
The recall would also include about 20,000 vehicles, which were earlier recalled in 2010, Wall Street Journal reported quoting a company spokesman as saying. These vehicles were manufactured between the period May 2000 and November 2001 and were equipped with potentially flawed Takata air bags, which were replaced with new air bags that too did not have a drying agent.
Air bags without a drying agent, which helps to avoid moisture buildup, are said to be responsible for explosion their spurting shrapnel into vehicle cabins when exposed to hot conditions. In fact, this problem has already caused over a dozen deaths, aside from more than 100 injuries worldwide, mostly in the United States. The new air bags will, however, include a chemical that will serve as a drying agent.
The latest recall will comprise 1.16 million vehicles in Japan, 820,000 in China and 1.47 million in Europe that were manufactured between April 2006 and December 2014. However, the recall will not include cars sold in the United States, as the company has already recalled its models produced during the same period.
In an email to Reuters on Wednesday, Toyota announced that latest recall comprises the Corolla, one of the best-selling models globally as well as the Vitz (also called Yaris) subcompact hatchback model. The recall includes air bags on the driver-side and passenger-side that were equipped in the cars manufactured between May 2000 and November 2001, and later between April 2006 and December 2014.
Toyota has also extended the latest recall to Central and South America, the Near and Middle East, Africa, and Singapore. Moreover, it also includes models like the Hilux pick-up truck as well as the Etios line of hatchbacks and sedans.
Transport authorities worldwide deem air bag inflators lacking a drying agent to be insecure and, hence, ordered all such inflators to be recalled in May 2016. Since then roughly 100 million air bag inflators manufactured by Takata have been categorized as faulty.
Watch the video on faulty Toyota recalling 5.8 million cars equipped with Takata air bag inflators below: