Takata is a nightmare that comes from Japan, a virus that resurfaces every now and then, a “plague” that has been affecting car manufacturers for years. Takata is the reason why these days thousands of Italian motorists cannot use their cars (Citroën C3 and Ds3). Takata is the name of the (failed) Japanese company that produced the killer airbags that have forced many major brands over the years to recall tens of millions of vehicles. But Takata is also a disturbing puzzle that has spanned 15 years of the global automotive industry, since the first tragic episode on May 27, 2009: Ashley Parham, a teenager from Oklahoma, died when the airbag in her Honda Accord exploded, shooting her with shrapnel. metal in her neck.
May 2024 Citroën recall
Were unsafe airbags sold even when serious anomalies had already been detected? And how many are still in circulation? Local and federal authorities, starting with the NHTSA-National Highway Traffic Safety Administration responsible for safety on American roads, have been dealing with this for some time by calibrating controls and recalls. But to understand what takatagate was (and still is), we need to line up some significant dates. Starting from the most recent: May 2024. Citroën begins the recall of over 600 thousand cars, produced between 2009 and 2019, in around twenty countries in southern Europe (including Italy), the Middle East and North Africa.
«Immediate suspension of driving»
The campaign concerns 497,171 Citroën C3s and 108,601 DS3s. «Dear customer – reads the peremptory notice – we are writing to inform you of a problem regarding the safety of your C3, equipped with inflating devices produced by the Takata company…. Citroën requests that you immediately stop driving your vehicle.” It’s not about taking the car for repairs or booking but rather “suspending immediately”. Without a car overnight for many is a big problem and a high cost. The subsequent steps for replacing the airbag or obtaining a replacement car are, according to the complaints of many motorists and consumer associations, a via crucis between endless waiting lists and very slow procedures
Huge costs
Huge costs also for car manufacturers. Scrolling through Stellantis’ 2023 budget we read about a maxi-provision of 951 million towards the recall and warranty campaigns for Takata airbags. Mercedes also reports in its balance sheet the financial risks and provisions linked to Takata in addition to the legal disputes, resolved largely in its favor, such as the class actions in the USA, Canada and Israel. Volkswagen in its 2023 financial statements mentions “adequate provisions”. Even Ferrari in 2016, following the measures of the US authorities, had set aside 37 million for recalls, which have largely been used to date.
Save on gas
What was the underlying problem? The use of a defective gas, the cheaper ammonium nitrate instead of the more expensive tetrazole. When the airbag is activated in an accident, this gas, in certain hot and humid climatic conditions, reaches very high pressure and the explosion is such that pieces of metal can be projected inside the vehicle causing injury or even death of the occupants. Rare cases (a few dozen deaths and many more injured) but sufficient to have triggered the alert from the control authorities many years ago. So pay attention to the chronology.
The first cases? In 2008
Takata began producing airbag inflators with an ammonium nitrate-based propellant in the late 1990s. In 2004, USA Today wrote, an unidentified Takata manager admitted to having “manipulated” test data on airbag inflation. In 2006 Takata was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 2008 the first cases of malfunctions occurred in the USA: Honda recalled 4 thousand vehicles. On May 27, 2009, the killer airbag hits the teenager in Oklahoma. That same year, a defective airbag severed the arteries in Gurjit Rathore’s neck in Virginia, as the family’s compensation lawsuit against Honda and Takata says: 75 million requested, 3 obtained.
US authority in the field (2010)
In 2010, Honda recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles and the NHTSA, the American road safety agency, began the first checks which in 2013 turned into a formal investigation into Takata. The company begins to struggle on the stock market. On November 7, 2014, the New York Times reported that Takata ordered technicians to destroy test results on some airbags after finding problems with the inflators. A few days later Law Suk Leh, nine months pregnant, died in Malaysia when she was hit by a piece of metal from the airbag that was supposed to protect her. In 2015, recalls reached the gigantic figure of 42 million vehicles, which had never happened before. Takata is under accusation everywhere and in a US court in February 2017 he pleads guilty and agrees to pay 1 billion dollars in fines. In the meantime, several car manufacturers have also agreed with customers on the claims for economic losses made by owners of cars with Takata airbags.
Crack and bows
In mid-2017 Takata, which in addition to airbags was a manufacturer of components, electronics and seat belts for the car industry (i.e. a synthesis of what they do best in Japan), collapses. Shigehisa Takada, the number one and grandson of the founder, spends his days apologizing and bowing. If he made as many as the debts (8 billion euros) he would still be there. It was a colossal collapse, the group ended up under receivership and what was left was sold: it had 20% of the airbag market, 50 thousand employees in 56 factories in 20 countries. And his slogan, not particularly original, was: «Quality first». Let’s bow, but it doesn’t end here.
Takata still you… (2021)
In September 2021 we learned that the American federal agency had started an investigation into 30 million vehicles built by around twenty car manufacturers in the last twenty years, up to 2019. And the reason is always the same: the sadly known Takata virus. Note the final year: 2019. That is two years after the bankruptcy and 4-5 years after the production of the dangerously defective airbags was under investigation.
2023-2024 is not over yet
The wound reopens in 2023 with Volkswagen recalling 270 thousand units due to “faults – according to the German transport authority – in the gas generator of the front airbags” with possible (always in certain conditions) “uncontrolled release of metal fragments that could injure the occupants.” Still. And today (May 2024) what does Citroën say when inviting owners of C3 and DS3 (2009-2019) to “immediately suspend driving the vehicle?” That «the chemical substances contained in the inflators» of the airbag «could deteriorate over time, exposing the driver and passenger to the risks (…) of the airbag inflating with excessive force in the event of an accident, capable of causing serious injury or death.”
The usual damn ammonium nitrate which saves money compared to tetrazole. This is how everyone profits, Takata and car manufacturers. As seen.
