Volkswagen said on Thursday it was recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in Brazil because of a problem with the rear wheels that could cause them to seize or fall off.
The recall affects its Novo Gol and Voyage models made in Brazil before last July.
Volkswagen is the second-biggest carmaker in Brazil after Italian group Fiat. It has sold more than 17 million vehicles in the country — Latin America’s biggest car market — since launching operations there 50 years ago.
Its announcement follows a massive worldwide recall by Toyota over accelerator and brake problems, and another by rival Japanese maker Honda in North America, Japan, Taiwan and Australia of models with a dangerous airbag fault.
Volkswagen Brazil said on its Web site that 193,620 Novo Gol and Voyage cars were at risk of not having sufficient lubrication on its rear wheels, which “can cause noise and continuous use could lead to a blockage of the wheels.”
“In extreme cases, the wheel can come off,” it said.
“It’s important to note that this recall only concerns some vehicles in the 2009-2010 lot. Cars made after July don’t have this lubrication problem. From July to now, all other vehicles are OK,” a Volkswagen spokesman said.
The spokesman denied that Volkswagen had been slow to react, saying: “A certain time is needed to identify the problem. What’s important is that the problem has been identified and resolved.”
It was the third such operation launched by Volkswagen in Brazil.
In April 2008, it recalled 477,000 of its Brazilian-made Fox compact models to fix a fault with the rear seat. In December of that same year, 120,000 late-model Fox, Novo Gol and Voyage cars were recalled because of a brake fault.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
RSS