Honda Could Recall Over 1 Million Vehicles to Fix Faulty Airbags

Honda's Takata airbag recall could exceed a million vehicles.Reuters

Japanese carmaker Honda Motor could recall over a million vehicles to repair potentially faulty airbags.

The recall involves defective airbag inflators supplied by Takata and will follow a similar move by rival Toyota Motor.

The Honda recall should be announced by the end of June, an unnamed source told Reuters.

Pursued by the news agency, Honda spokeswoman Akemi Ando said: "We are conducting investigations quickly and if we decide that there are vehicles that should be called back, we will swiftly file for a recall."

US Probe

On 12 June, America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating whether an estimated 1.1 million vehicles made by Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and the Fiat-owned Chrysler Group have airbags that could injure people in the event of a crash.

The auto industry regulator has received six reports of airbags not deploying properly in the humid climates of Florida and Puerto Rico.

Toyota Recall

On 11 June, Toyota Motor said it would recall nearly 650,000 vehicles in Japan to deal with potentially flawed airbags after Takata warned that further repairs could be needed.

A Takata spokesman said that more vehicles could be recalled by other manufacturers because of potential airbag inflator defects.

The vehicles covered by the Toyota recall include the Corolla and Camry sedans and Tundra trucks.

Toyota said it was expanding its 2013 recall, which involved 2.14 million vehicles, because the serial numbers provided by Takata, for the potentially defective airbag inflators, had been incomplete.

The Japanese automaker also said it would instruct dealers in the US and other markets to start replacing suspect Takata inflators on all vehicles covered by the 2013 recall, reported Reuters.

Toyota has received one report of a seat-cover burn related to supposedly defective airbag inflators.