Honda has announced this week that it is continuing the recall of about millions of more cars with defective Takata airbags, as the safety equipment supplier deals with more of its legal troubles.
The car maker is also dealing with net profit drops following rising costs of a number of injuries plus more than 10 reported deaths caused by the defective airbags, according to Yahoo!. A spokesman for the company said on Friday that it is also recalling 21 million more units worldwide, other than the 30 million Takata airbags due for recall.
The airbag supplier has come under fire for the defect described as plastic and sharp metal fragments getting deployed together with the airbag toward its occupants in the event of a possible collision course. Takata has been battling investigations as well as lawsuits over defects discovered in its airbags; the said scandal has greatly affected over known auto brands that use its safety equipment.
Among its automaker clients included famous brands like Toyota and Volkswagen, which are also doing recalls of their own vehicles due to the airbag issue. Preliminary investigations have led to increased suspicion of chemical inside the airbag's inflator tube to explode when weather conditions are too hot or humid.
Honda says that its annual profit has since gone down to 32 percent from 2015, at $3.2 billion. The company reported on losses related to quality control, specifically on the airbag defect issue.
Analysts also pointed out that the car maker is taking the negative outcome over the defective airbag incidents seriously, according to The Washington Post. On the other hand, Takata recently reported its net loss of $120 million following orders from the NHTSA to recall the defective airbags ASAP.
The number of deaths had already risen to 13 as of last week, including two people in Malaysia, according to Honda. Last March, a Texas teenager had reportedly died to injuries sustained after the defective airbag exploded, when her 2002 Honda Civic got involved in a collision with another car.
The airbag supplier is in the works of removing ammonium nitrate in its airbags by 2018. In the meantime, this leaves drivers the option to have their vehicle's airbags replaced with a new ammonium nitrate bag for now, and when new airbags (less the chemical) become available. As for Takata, the U.S. NHTSA says that the airbag maker's troubles do not sit well with how the company is trying to cope over its reported profit losses.
