Seven “incidents” involving the Toyota Prius have been reported where a side curtain airbag has partially inflated without a deployment signal from the electronic airbag controller, Autoliv admits. The Lexus HS 250h is also recalled for the same safety defect.
In each of those Prius incidents, the vehicles were parked and unoccupied, thus far. There have been no reported injuries. Autoliv, of course, is a major replacement supplier for Takata airbag inflators; and used a standard equipment at five large automakers.
The latest safety defect is disturbing for car owners who already have doubts about the safety and durability of inflators – highly explosive devices – and in the case of Takata and now Autoliv – unstable.
Autoliv in a statement says the root cause analysis of this safety defect is continuing.
“No incidents have been reported in any vehicles produced by the four other OEMs who used the same inflator, pointing to vehicle specific characteristics contributing to the issue in addition to a manufacturing issue,” says Autoliv.
The inflator manufacturing process suspected of contributing to the issue was changed in January 2012 and the vehicles now recalled by Toyota represent approximately half of all such inflators manufactured until January 2012.
It is too early to determine the final cost to Autoliv, but it is currently expecting it to be at the lower end of a range of $10-40 million, net of expected insurance recoveries, as published in Autoliv’s vague 10Q statement on April 29.
