Toyota has announced a recall of around 2.9 million vehicles over faulty airbags supplied by Takata Corp

Toyota has announced a recall of around 2.9 million vehicles globally over a fault with the airbag supplied by Takata Corp, reported Reuters. Takata Inflators use a chemical compound, ammonium nitrate, which is said to be unsafe if used without a drying agent. The fault in question in the Takata airbags is with the inflators, which when exposed to heat for a long time may explode or deploy. Around 16 deaths in the United States have been reported due to sudden explosion of the airbag.

The car manufacturer will recall the Corolla Axio sedan and RAV4 SUV crossover due to faulty airbag inflators in countries including Japan, China, Oceania and others. Around 46,604 cars in the UK have been affected that consists of 13,890 Auris and 32,714 Yaris. All the affected cars were produced between December 2002 & March 2004 and February 2007 & December 2012.

Besides this, Fuji Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Motors and Hino are also recalling about 240,000 vehicles in Japan over the faulty inflators that have been manufactured by Takata Corp. However, North America has been exempted from the recalls related to Takata airbags.

Last month, Takata pleaded guilty for the airbag concerns and is currently looking for a financial partner to pay for the costs incurred due to the recalls. Toyota will fix all the affected vehicles at its authorised Toyota dealerships, which will take about 30 minutes to three hours. The car manufacturer is also working with the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) to rectify the affected vehicles.

- Financial Express