It looks like Takata’s woes are set to worsen, as Nissan has announced that it will drop the Japanese airbag supplier. The carmaker now joins Toyota, Mazda and Honda, all of which have recently announced that they will cease to use airbags sourced from Takata in their vehicles as well.
In a report by Bloomberg, Dion Corbett, a Nissan spokesman said, “In line with the recent announcement from the United States’ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we have decided to no longer use inflators containing ammonium nitrate in airbags for future models.
“We will continue to put our customers’ safety first and work to replace the inflators in vehicles under recall as quickly as possible,” he added.
Ammonium nitrate is used in the composition of Takata’s airbag propellant, which when subjected to moisture and heat, can become unstable and rupture with excessive force, resulting in injury, and even death.
Bloomberg also reports that Honda, Toyota and Nissan are the three companies that formed the largest number of vehicles recalled due to Takata-sourced airbags.
Toyota have also stated their stance on Takata airbags. “The inflator using ammonium nitrate produced by Takata will not be adopted by Toyota,” Akio Toyoda, Toyota president, said at a briefing in Tokyo recently.
Other car manufacturers that are considering ditching Takata include Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) and Mitsubishi. Should that happen, this could further diminish the company’s share of the global market for airbag inflators to 5%, compared to 22% from last year.
