This Takata airbag crisis just keeps getting worse.
According to Reuters, the three largest German automakers — BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler AG — have vowed to recall 2.5 million vehicles in the United States over defective Takata airbags, as the Japanese automotive supplier continues to feel the heat of its ever-growing scandal.
As part of Wednesday's announcement, Volkswagen said it would recall 850,000 affected vehicles with BMW recalling 840,000 vehicles. VW's U.S. recalls include 2006-2010 Passat sedans in addition to 2010-2014 Golf and Jetta models and 2009-2014 CC models, as reported by Reuters.
A day earlier, on Tuesday, Daimler AG announced it would recall 840,000 vehicles as well.
The recalls from the aforementioned three automakers involve their newer models, which had the Takata airbags, including one 2015 model from BMW.
Reuters also reports that Daimler estimates the cost of the recall to be $383 million.
In total, these defective Takata airbags have led to about 24 million U.S. vehicles being recalled since 2009.
Honda alone has recalled 2.23 million U.S. vehicles — nearly as much as the 2.5 million combined U.S. vehicles that BMW, VW and Daimler AG have just announced as part of their respective recalls. In addition, Ford has recalled 361,000 Ranger pickups with the airbags and Mazda about 20,000 of its B-Series trucks.
Nine deaths in the U.S. have been connected to the defective Takata airbags to date.
As of November 2015, Takata had been hit with $70 million in fines — a number that can grow substantially if the company doesn't right its wrongs in the near future.
