According to reports, the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency (NHTSA) has already urged ARC Automotive to issue a recall of roughly 67 million airbag inflators made between 2000 and 2018, but the Tennessee-based manufacturer has so far refused to do so. In a letter to the NHTSA last week, ARC claimed it was being asked to “prove a negative” by the recall.
"We disagree with NHTSA's new sweeping request when extensive field testing has found no inherent defect," ARC said in a statement last week.
Since 2014, at least two people have been killed by ARC airbags firing shrapnel into the car as they inflated. One, a mother of 10, was killed in a crash in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 2021 in what was described as an otherwise minor crash, except that a metal inflator fragment struck her neck when her airbag inflated.
According to US media, some 6.8 million vehicles across 50 different models could be affected by a recall, although that number could easily rise as the NHTSA presses ARC to issue a recall. Affected brands include Audi, General Motors, Hyundai, Ford, Volkswagen, and BMW, each of which could also choose to issue its own recalls separately.
ARC isn't the only airbag maker facing recalls for defective airbags, either. Tesla also issued a recall of 30,000 airbags last November, noting they could inflate incorrectly in low-speed crashes.
The largest automotive recall in US history was set in motion by defective airbags made by Japan-based Takata, which also caused metal fragments to explode into the car when they inflated. After the NHTSA ordered a recall of 42 million cars on US roads, Takata filed for bankruptcy in 2017.