Car maker BMW will recall 1.4 million cars in China due to defective airbags, the country's market regulator announced.
Cars that have had the steering wheel returned may have defective airbags from Japan's Takata Corporation that can rupture and "cause fragments to fly out and potentially injure occupants," the State Market Regulation Administration said.
Affected cars include models manufactured from 2003 to 2017. Nearly 600,000 domestically produced cars manufactured by the BMW Brilliance Automotive joint venture and about 760,000 imported cars will be recalled.
For cars confirmed to be defective, the German automaker will replace the front airbag free of charge.
Since 2014, millions of cars equipped with Takata airbags have been recalled, and three years later the company went bankrupt. In 2021, Ford recalled three million vehicles containing Takata airbags.
In July of this year, BMW recalled nearly 400,000 vehicles in the United States for the same reason.
China is the largest car market in the world. Last month, hybrid and electric cars made up more than half of sales, a first in the highly competitive segment dominated by domestic brands. | BGNES
