Kia recalls 4 million vehicles in US over airbag issues

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kia plans to announce major recall campaign. According to the publication, the company has already sent to US National Highway Safety Administration address movement notification that more than a decade and a half installed on their cars cushions manufactured by ARC Automotive. Regulator now is investigating this company - ARC airbags are recognized explosive.



The NHTSA has previously reported that investigations may hit 12 automakers and dozens of models – up to a total of 67 million cars. The regulator claims to have at least data of one pillow-related death and seven incidents involving affected. NHTSA does not name any brands or models, but according to WSJ, back in 2014, a pillow explosion was recorded on a Kia Optima release of 2004.

If the service campaign is still announced, Kia will have to replace airbags on four million cars. Will she accept the involvement of ARC Automotive itself, while not known, accuses the NHTSA of companies deny. At the same time, in the case of a global recall of cars through the fault of another manufacturer of airbags, the Japanese company Takata, a global scandal led to its bankruptcy.

The American regulator believes that in ARC inflators Automotive has a system defect: due to flaws in its assembly welding slag clogs the gas outlet. In the end, after airbag deployment, the pressure in the inflator increases uncontrollably, it explodes and throws a cloud of metal fragments into the cabin. In my queue at ARC stated that there is no system defect - there are separate cases of manufacturing defects, as pillows are produced on conveyors different factories. Moreover, the company believes that the problems as such no longer exists thanks to a series of local recall campaigns organized by nearby brands.