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With this, the total number of voluntary recalls in India has crossed 900,000 units since July 2012, when a code in this regard of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) came into being. Honda, Toyota and Nissan have announced recalls in the past two months.
Arvind Saxena, president and managing director, General Motors India, said if there was a potential issue, the company ensured it was corrected as soon as possible. GM India will contact all affected customers to correct the fitting of the remote keyless entry accessory, free of charge.
GM had recalled 114,000 Taveras, a sports utility vehicle, in July 2013.
Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car maker, has recalled 137,901 vehicles. The proportion is small, considering the company sells close to 100,000 vehicles a month. Hyundai, the second largest, has recalled only 2,437 vehicles. This is again an insignificant number against annual sales of about 420,000 vehicles.
For some companies, the proportion of recalls to sales is absurdly high. GM has sold 51,839 vehicles in India and its latest recall is thrice its sales. Ford India has recalled 320,877 vehicles since July 2012, while it sold 75,000 vehicles last year in the domestic market.
India does not have a mandatory recall policy. The government has been planning a policy on this for a while.
R S Kalsi, executive director, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki, said recently if a company pro-actively recalled a product, it reinforced trust.
“If such incidents happen once in a while, you can reassure customers. However, frequent incidents can cause brand erosion,” he added.
DOING IT AGAIN
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GM's recall one of the biggest in India
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Many car makers have announced recalls in recent years
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Proportion of recall to sales high for certain firms
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India does not have a recall policy approved by the govt
- Recalls in India are voluntary, based on a Siam code of July 2012
