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Even Ferrari swept up in latest Takata recall expansion

The scope of Takata's deadly airbag problems continues to widen. Eight manufacturers announced recalls Friday that affect more than 12 million vehicles, according to documents filed with federal regulators. The automakers include Honda, which is recalling 4.5 million units, Fiat Chrysler with 4.3 million, Toyota with 1.65 million, and Subaru, which is recalling almost 400,000. Some of these cars include the Saab 9-2x and Pontiac Vibe that Toyota and Subaru made for General Motors. Mazda will recall 730,000 vehicles and Nissan has 400,000 affected units. The smallest numbers were posted by Mitsubishi, with 38,000 Lancers manufactured from 2006 to 2007, and as a noteworthy high-end manufacturer, Ferrari is calling back 2,800 vehicles. These are all US-market cars. Beyond America, the Japanese Transport Ministry has announced seven million additional vehicles will be recalled, which means 19.6 million vehicles across the globe are affected by recalls announced. The defects have been traced to an insufficiently manufactured airbag inflator, which lacks a drying agent that would prevent the inflators from deteriorating over time. Thirteen deaths have been linked to the faulty airbags, which have become unstable and are prone to exploding and showering vehicle occupants with lethal amounts of metal shrapnel. A private equity firm, KKR & Co., has been named in a possible buyout of the struggling Takata. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Shutterstock Government/Legal Recalls Ferrari Honda Mazda Automakers Mitsubishi Nissan Pontiac Subaru Toyota Saab Safety

Honda overhauls North American operations with eye towards more autonomy

The increasing sales success of Honda North America (HNA) has led to Honda brass in Japan reorganizing regional operations here. The management shuffling here and in Japan is intended to both streamline and confer more responsibility on HNA "as the region assumes a larger role in shaping Honda's global business," and as Honda builds more facilities that serve several roles in the product development pipeline.
Honda's executive vice president and president of HNA Tetsuo Iwamura was named COO of automotive operations, taking over a position that had been handled by company president Takanobu Ito. Iwamura's new role puts him in charge of anything Honda makes that has four wheels, which Automotive News says equates to 78 percent of the company's global revenue.
The current company CFO, Fumihiko Ike, will fill the now-vacant role of company chairman and Kohei Takeuchi will take his place. Takeuchi is presently the operating officer, general manager of the accounting division. The executive swaps take effect April 1, 2013.

Honda working with new supplier Autoliv for Takata inflator recall

Takata is fighting against US regulators over whether to expand its airbag inflator recall nationwide, but the affected automakers are continuing to broaden their own campaigns to get these vehicles fixed. Honda is the first company to take the bold move of partnering with another supplier for its replacement parts. It just announced plans to work with Autoliv to create components for models needing repaired in the US. "The agreement is made in order to meet the expanded supply of inflators needed by Honda and is subject to definitive documentation," Autoliv said in a statement. The company plans to add the extra capacity for these replacement parts at its existing factories, and deliveries are expected to begin in six months. The decision to switch suppliers was quite surprising because the choice was largely considered impractical previously. Automakers believed that changing manufacturers could take as long as a year or more to implement. However, Autoliv apparently found a way to accelerate that. According to Reuters, Honda said at a hearing in the House of Representatives on December 3 (pictured above) that it was in talks with Autoliv and another supplier called Daicel about building more inflators. The extra parts are sure to come in handy for Honda, as it is now officially expanding its driver side inflator recall nationwide. Although, that that option was already available to any concerned drivers who asked for the remedy. Even with added capacity, Takata had estimated it would take two years to manufacturer enough replacements to fix all of the affected vehicles from all of the automakers. Scroll down to read Autoliv's statement on its new role. Autoliv to supply replacement airbag inflators to be used by Honda (Stockholm, December 3, 2014) – – – Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV, and SSE: ALIV sdb), the worldwide leader in automotive safety, will supply replacement airbag inflators to be used by Honda Motor Company in support of the ongoing field action initiatives in the United States. The agreement is made in order to meet the expanded supply of inflators needed by Honda and is subject to definitive documentation. In order to be able to meet increased demand, Autoliv will build additional inflator capacity in its existing manufacturing facilities. Deliveries are estimated to commence after a period of about six months from today.