Volvo Cars Corp is recalling 54,000 US vehicles for an air bag defect after one crash death tied to the issue, according to a filing with US regulators.
The unit of Geely Automotive Holdings Ltd (吉利汽車) is recalling 2001 to 2003 model S80 and S60 vehicles sold or registered in high humidity US states, because the driver side frontal air bag inflator might rupture, sending metal fragments flying, when the air bag is deployed.
According to the Volvo filing with the US government, it is to replace the inflators with a modern propellant and inflator, and would do so at no cost to customers.
Photo: Reuters
Parts are expected to be available by March.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Saturday said that it confirmed one person in the US was killed when a ZF/TRW FG2 twin driver air bag inflator containing the propellant 5AT-148N exploded.
The issue has been the subject of NHTSA and Volvo meetings since August last year.
The agency said the fatal incident was the only known rupture incident for this type of inflator around the world.
NHTSA and Volvo are gathering and reviewing data about other vehicles equipped with these inflators to determine if additional actions are needed, the agency said.
The ZF Group, which has its US headquarters in suburban Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday said that it was first notified by Volvo in August last year of the incident and it “promptly informed NHTSA and, together with Volvo, began investigating the incident.”
NHTSA has investigated for years other air bag inflator ruptures.
The largest automotive recall in history involves about 100 million inflators produced by Japan’s Takata Corp that have been recalled by 19 major automakers worldwide and linked to 26 deaths.
Takata used ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate air bags in a crash.
Additional reporting by AP
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