Takata air-bag users VW, Tesla may join US recalls

Tokyo

VOLKSWAGEN AG and Tesla Motors Inc are the only carmakers that have avoided US recalls while continuing to use Takata Corp air-bag inflators, which have triggered a global safety crisis.

Takata has produced 887,055 air-bag inflators for Volkswagen since January 2011, and a combined 184,926 units for Tesla since January 2012, and the two companies are ongoing customers, Takata said in a letter last month to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency had asked Takata in June to list the companies in North America that it supplies with inflators containing ammonium nitrate propellant.