Takata airbag inflator recall impacts Daimler

The Daimler Group is among those singed by the recall to be carried out by airbag manufacturer Takata.  

In early May, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosed extensions of the recall to be carried out by Takata.

According to this information, Takata has agreed to declare 35 to 40 million modules of front-passenger airbags without drying agent in the United States as being defective, and will recall them over the period of May 2016 to December 2019 in several stages.

A statement issued by Daimler late yesterday said, “We are not aware of any cases of the defect that Takata has recognised in an airbag inflator in our vehicles worldwide. The safety of our customers has the highest priority for us.

Certain front-passenger airbags from Takata are installed in vehicles sold by subsidiaries of the Daimler Group in the United States and Canada. Therefore, appropriate precautionary recalls will be done in the mentioned timeframe for certain models. Daimler AG will recognize a provision in the mid hundreds of million euros in the financial year 2016 in connection with the extended recall of airbags by the supplier Takata in the United States and Canada. The anticipated expense will not affect earnings from the ongoing business and will be reported separately. The negative impact on the cash flow caused by the recalls will be spread over the mentioned timeframe and will be minor for 2016. Daimler AG continues to assume that Group EBIT from the ongoing business will increase slightly in 2016.”

In February 2016, Daimler had recalled 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 euros.