Seven manufacturers have added close to 4.4m vehicles to the massive Takata air bag recall.
General Motors, Volkswagen, Ford, Daimler Vans, BMW, Jaguar-Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz have added more vehicles to the biggest automotive recall in history.
Eight other companies announced recalls via official US government channels last week.
Of the 4.4m recalled overnight, General Motors has the largest slice with 1.9m SUVs and pick-up trucks.
A GM statement said that it would start the recall process in accordance with US government requirements, but noted that it doesn’t believe that the trucks “pose an unreasonable safety risk.”
The latest round of Takata air bag recalls so far totals 16.4m – although the total of all recalls is around 78m.
The Japanese parts maker’s airbag inflators were the issue sparking the latest recall, which centres around its inflators, which use the chemical ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate the safety device.
The chemical can degrade over time, and cause malfunction of the inflator – in the worst cases, causing shrapnel to explode through a vehicle’s interior.
Takata’s malfunctioning inflators have cause 10 deaths and dozens of serious injuries worldwide. Two more deaths are being investigated by Malaysian authorities.
