Takata Corp. has been in the eye of a storm due to defective airbags from the company being responsible for multiple deaths. Now, as the company battles it out with the NHTSA, the controversy has forced Takata President Stefan Stocker to step down.
Chairman Shigehisa Takada will replace Stocker, who became company president 18 months ago.
Stocker had been appointed in a bid to strengthen the management and give it direction. Amid the faulty airbag controversy that is growing by the day, the 61-year-old Stocker requested the company to relieve him of his duties, according to Takata spokesperson Hideyuki Matsumoto.
Takada, on the other hand, is the grandson of the firm's founder and controls the Japan-based company along with his mother Akiko Takada. He will take a pay cut of 50 percent for four months and will continue to retain the post as Takata Corp's chief executive. Takada reportedly earns $2.3 million per year.
Takata has been battling controversy and class-action lawsuits as faulty airbags with malfunctioning inflators have been connected with multiple deaths. In the past one and half years, airbags manufactured by Takata Corp. have been responsible for nearly 139 injuries and four deaths.
As previously reported by Tech Times, the auto safety restraint system manufacturer was allegedly aware of issues with the airbags but chose to ignore the defects.
The company has also refused to expand the recall and is at loggerheads with the NHTSA over the issue.
Several auto makers, such as Nissan, Honda, Ford, BMW, Mistubishi, Mazda, Subaru and Chrysler, have been compelled to recall vehicles that deploy Takata's defective airbags. Honda alone has recalled over 20 million cars worldwide as a result of the faulty airbags supplied by the Japanese company.
However, it is unlikely that Stocker's resignation as company president will have any effect on dissatisfied consumers or placate regulators in the U.S. and Japan since Stocker was not fully responsible for Takata's management.
