Honda widens recalls over faulty Takata airbags to 6 mn cars

Honda is increasing the number of US vehicle recalls due to faulty airbags, manufactured by Japanese ancillary supplier Takata, to six million, the automaker has confirmed.

That's up from the roughly 2.8 million Honda vehicles that the company previously thought were equipped with faulty airbag inflators, which can shoot metal into the cabin when the airbags deploy, causing potentially fatal injuries.

The defective inflators have killed five people in Honda vehicles alone, four of which have been in the United States.

Honda is still in the process of determining exactly how many of its vehicles have the faulty inflators, and whether they're on just the driver's side airbag or both the driver's side and front passenger airbag, according to Honda spokesman Chris Martin.

Once it determines the full extent of the problem, Honda will reach out to owners of affected vehicles and tell them how to proceed.

Rick Schostek, Honda's executive vice president for North America, testified Wednesday before a House panel that the automaker would be expanding its initial regional recall from June.

The updated numbers from Honda mean approximately 11 million vehicles in the United States have now been affected by the Takata airbag issue. Other brands affected include Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford and BMW.