Air-bag inflators that regulators have warned could explode during a crash and spray the car’s interior with metal shrapnel are in at least 50 different vehicle models spanning 15 automotive brands, according to records filed as part of a federal safety-defect investigation.
The Wall Street Journal identified at least 6.8 million vehicles that carmakers have said were built with the potentially dangerous air-bag part. To tally the figure, the Journal reviewed documents that automakers submitted to regulators during the government’s eight-year probe of the matter.
The total number of vehicles affected is expected to be much larger, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week publicly demanding that parts maker ARC Automotive recall a total of 67 million inflators, devices that activate during a collision to rapidly fill the air bag like a balloon.
The auto-safety regulator has yet to release a figure for the total number of vehicles covered by the action or a comprehensive list of the models involved. Such a list could help drivers determine whether their cars have a potentially hazardous or lethal device.
At least two people have been killed and multiple others injured during crashes in which their vehicles’ air bags exploded, sending sharp metal fragments flying at the driver and occupants, according to NHTSA. Some victims were hit in the head and face with the shards, it said.
When the Journal asked NHTSA to provide a list of vehicles affected by the recall demand, it declined to offer one, noting that all public material on its investigation is available on its website. The agency has said the risk associated with the air-bag inflators, if left unaddressed, would lead to more incidents in the future.
An ARC spokesman also didn’t respond to questions about whether it knows what makes and models are equipped with the inflators and whether it could provide more details.
The Knoxville, Tenn.-based ARC, in a letter to NHTSA, declined to comply with the regulators’ recall demand.
The parts maker disputed the agency’s claim that its inflators are defective, saying that the known incidents have been few and isolated relative to the total air-bag population with these devices and that no underlying cause has been identified.
Of those vehicles identified by the Journal in its records review, General Motors appears to have the highest number of cars—at least 3.6 million—that have ARC-made inflators suspected to pose a danger.
GM has already recalled four models, spanning the 2008 to 2017 model years. The latest recall was last Friday, covering about 995,000 SUVs in the U.S.
Documents submitted to NHTSA by the automaker show that GM has identified at least another 25 models built with the potentially explosive air-bag devices, including those sold under Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC brands, for which it hasn’t issued a recall.
In a statement, GM said that it continues to investigate the matter with assistance from a third-party engineering firm that specializes in this type of part, and that it has kept NHTSA informed of its work.
Several other brands, including Ford, Hyundai, BMW and Volkswagen, have also told regulators that they have vehicles with ARC-made inflators covered by the defects probe, according to records the automakers submitted to NHTSA. To date, most haven’t been recalled for the issue, a review of NHTSA recall filings shows.
In a statement, BMW said “according to the current state of knowledge, BMW is not affected by this specific issue.”
Other affected car companies say they are still investigating the issue, working with regulators and trying to assess how the recall demand could affect their products.
NHTSA’s letter to ARC pressing for a recall is unusual because most auto-safety recalls in the U.S. involve a single carmaker addressing problems with its own vehicles. In this case, the regulator is asking an auto-parts supplier to respond to a suspected issue with tens of millions of air-bag parts that are installed in cars sold by multiple brands.
The agency’s request, which is for both the driver- and passenger-side air bags, covers vehicles built over an 18-year period by at least 12 automakers.
Automakers have conducted eight separate recalls in the U.S. in connection with the air-bag concern, covering a little more than one million vehicles. Those campaigns include 13 models that are known publicly.
The Journal reviewed documents provided by automakers to NHTSA in the first three years of the ARC investigation to identify the makes and models covered by its probe. The list isn’t complete because more recent materials filed by the car companies weren’t made publicly available.
The inflators covered by the recall demand were made between 2000 and 2018, according to ARC.
In a letter to NHTSA released last Friday, ARC disclosed that it had changed how it manufactures the devices in 2018 to improve the welding process and install an automated inspection system.
Typically, NHTSA will specify the models involved in an investigation or recall as part of its public records, but in this case the recall demand is on a component, not a particular vehicle, said Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy nonprofit.
Still, given the large number of air-bag parts involved, if NHTSA has more detailed model information, it should consider releasing it publicly, he added.
“It’s really helpful for consumers to have that, so they can at least clarify whether or not they have this thing in their car,” Brooks said.
Most recalls are conducted by the manufacturers—in many cases at NHTSA’s requests. It is unusual for the auto-safety regulator to formally demand a recall in a letter released to the public, as it did last week with ARC.
The wide array of models covered by NHTSA’s safety action point to a messy situation ahead for both the auto industry and consumers in trying to get a handle on the exact scope of the problem.
The Takata air bag recall, which began in 2014 and is similar in that it also involved exploding air bags, is still ongoing and has cost automakers billions of dollars in repairs. Honda Motor, for instance, had set aside $4.9 billion over two years to cover recall costs related to Takata.
In all, more than 42 million vehicles were recalled by 19 different automakers to fix the defective devices, making it the largest automotive-safety campaign in U.S. history.
In 2017, Takata pleaded guilty to criminal wrongdoing for providing misleading test reports to automakers on rupture-prone air bags and agreed to pay $1 billion in penalties to settle a U.S. Justice Department probe. That same year, Takata went bankrupt.
Because ARC is declining NHTSA’s recall demand, the safety regulator might have to take further steps to try to impose it, including the possibility of holding a public hearing to lay out the case. That is a precursor to formally ordering a recall.
ARC could then challenge such an order in court.