A Chinese manufacturer is to blame for the massive ignition-related recalls General Motors was forced to make after the largest car maker in the U.S. with defective ignition switches installed in more than 17 million vehicles.
General Motors said in a document filed with safety regulators Tuesday and obtained by Reuters that the Chinese arm of Dalian Alps Electronics owned by Alps Electrics of Japan is responsible for the faulty ignition switches found in the Cadillac DeVille and DTS cars, Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, and Buick Lucerne and LaCrosse recalled by the company earlier this month.
This is the same problem in an earlier recall of more than 2.6 million Saturn Ions, Chevrolet Cobalts and other vehicles manufactured by General Motors that the company says is linked to 13 deaths, although court filings say the number is actually higher. The recall led to numerous investigations by state and federal regulators and made the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to charge a hefty $35 million fine on General Motors.
The problem, which was similar to the June 16 recalls of Cadillac, Chevrolet and Buick cars, was due to defective ignition switches that could be knocked out of the run position and turn off the car's engine and safety system, which in turn disables air bags, power steering and power brakes.
Dalian Alps acknowledges that it has supplied ignition switches for General Motors but says the U.S. auto maker did not contact the Chinese supplier to complain about defective switches. The company also says that the ignition switches it manufactured for General Motors were based on the designs provided by the Chevy maker.
"As of today, we have not been contacted, or received any complaint from GM of any problems or defects with Alps' switches," Alps' group manager of investor and public relations Takashi Sogo says.
General Motors says it will not replace the faulty ignition switches in its latest recall, unlike with the ignition-related recalls earlier this year, even though the company admits that the affected cars have torque that is "slightly below" the company standards. Instead, it will only reshape ignition keys to remove a slot at the end of the key to prevent key rings suspended in the air from slipping to the side and pulling the key out of the ignition.
This is not the first time a high-profile recall was linked to parts made by Chinese suppliers. Earlier this year, U.K.-based Aston Martin recalled a whopping 75% of its production since 2007 after finding out that the accelerator arms in its cars were made by counterfeit plastics supplied by Dongguan-based Synthetic Plastic Raw Material to Aston Martin's subcontractor Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool.
