Ford Motor to file petition to stall recall of 2.2 mn vehicles

US automaker Ford Motor Co will file a petition to avoid an immediate recall of about 2.2 million of its vehicles with defective Takata air-bag inflators, Reuters reported.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co had agreed to recall 515,394 2007 to 2011 Versa models after Takata declared 2.7 million vehicles to have potentially defective inflators.

According to a Ford spokesman, the automaker would file a petition requesting "to continue testing and analyzing our inflators."

The NHTSA said the petition would seek an exemption from the recall as Ford believed that the issue was inconsequential.

Ford added, the issue covered 2.5 million vehicles, including the 2007-11 Ranger, 2006-12 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, 2006-11 Mercury Milan, and 2007-10 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX. Ford had earlier said it covered around 2.2 million vehicles.

Last week NHTSA said that new testing had led Takata to declare inflators defective in Ford, Nissan and Mazda Motor Corp vehicles in some driver-side air bags built from 2012 through 2015.

According to the statement of the NHTSA yesterday, "testing data shows that the propellant in this inflator is degrading and on the path towards potential ruptures in the future. There are no reported ruptures in the real-world or in testing."

Takata air bag inflators had already been linked to 17 deaths and over 180 injuries worldwide, and the recalls would eventually cover about 125 million inflators.

Nissan said last week that it planned to recall 627,000 Versa cars from the 2007-12 model years, including 515,000 in the US "out of an abundance of caution."

According to Nissan, testing of 895 inflators did not show any ruptures, while one "exhibited an elevated internal pressure." According to Takata, the inflators potentially could rupture "after several years of exposure to high absolute humidity."