Nissan Motor Co. joined Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in saying they won't use key components made by Takata Corp. as more automakers distance themselves from the air-bag supplier, whose defective devices are behind the biggest-ever automotive safety recall.
"In line with the recent announcement from the United States' National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), we have decided to no longer use inflators containing ammonium nitrate in airbags for future models," Dion Corbett, a Nissan spokesman, said in an e-mail on Saturday. "We will continue to put our customers' safety first and work to replace the inflators in vehicles under recall as quickly as possible."
Honda, Toyota and Nissan are the three companies with the most number of vehicles recalled because of Takata's air bags, which have been found to rupture with excessive force and are linked to more than a hundred injuries and eight deaths. Tokyo-based Takata posted a loss of ¥8.66 billion ($70 million) in the second quarter and slashed its full-year forecast of net income to ¥5 billion from ¥20 billion after incurring losses related to recalls.