German automaker Daimler announced that it will recall around 840,000 vehicles in the United States as a precautionary measure due to potentially defective airbag models from manufacturer Takata. The Takata airbags are also installed in Mercedes-Benz cars and Daimler vans. On Tuesday, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) notified Daimler that its airbags are potentially defective.

On the basis of available information on the components, the recall will include approximately 705,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and about 136,000 Daimler vans in the United States. The expense for this precautionary recall is estimated at a total of about € 340 million (Rs 2,600 crore).

The estimated costs will be recognized as a provision in financial year 2015. Therefore net profit of the company will decrease to € 8.7 billion (2014: € 7.3 billion) and Group EBIT to € 13.2 billion (2014: € 10.8 billion). The EBIT from the ongoing business however remains unchanged at € 13.8 billion (2014: € 10.1 billion).

Daimler has pointed out that both the dividend proposal and the employees’ profit participation for the year 2015 as well as the earnings expected for financial year 2016 will remain unchanged. 

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