Honda Motor Co said on Thursday it would recall about 1.35 million Fit subcompacts globally to repair defective wiring in the headlights.
No accident was reported from the defect, a Honda spokesman in Tokyo said.
Subject to the recall are Fit cars built at Honda’s Suzuka factory in Japan between November 2001 and October 2007. About 735,000 units will be recalled in Japan, where the Fit is the second most popular car behind Toyota Motor Corp’s Prius, excluding 660cc minivehicles.
Honda will also recall 143,000 Fits exported to the United States, and 385,000 units in Europe, where the model is called the Jazz. The car will also be recalled in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
In Japan, the recall will cost about 3.6 billion yen ($43 million) and will have negligible impact on Honda’s earnings, the spokesman said.
Earlier, Honda Motor Co had said expertise gained from designing autos that run on fuel cells helped it speed up development of a battery-powered Fit, after the company was late in entering the growing market for rechargeable cars.
Parts of the Fit, due in 2012, including the motor and transmission are derived from those used in the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity sedan, said Sachito Fujimoto, Honda’s senior chief engineer for fuel-cell and electric autos. Honda detailed plans to test electric Fits in Torrance, California, and at Google Inc and Stanford University, as well as a plug-in hybrid sedan in Torrance that’s also being readied for sale.
“All of the development knowledge we acquired was leveraged,” Fujimoto said in an interview at the Torrance-based US headquarters for Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker. Compared with battery cars, “fuel-cell technology is very difficult. We tried to work on the most difficult technology first.”
Honda unveiled the electric Fit in Los Angeles last month, in part to meet a California rule requiring such vehicles, after touting hydrogen as the best low-pollution alternative to gasoline in the past decade. The Tokyo-based company faces a global challenge from carmakers including Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and General Motors Co, which all preceded Honda in announcing plans to sell rechargeable autos.
Battery cars charged at electrical outlets store power for propulsion, while fuel cells make electricity onboard a vehicle in a chemical reaction with hydrogen and oxygen. Both technologies eliminate tailpipe exhaust and emissions of carbon and other gases linked to climate change.
Honda climbed 1.9 per cent to 3,235 yen as of 1:45 pm in Tokyo trading, poised for the highest close since April 28. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.3 per cent.
The market for autos charged at electrical outlets and hybrids may expand to about 7 per cent of global sales volume, or 5.2 million units, by 2020, industry researcher JD Power & Associates, said in October. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s chief executive officer, has said he expects electric cars to account for 10 per cent of global industry sales by 2020, rising from several thousand units, or less than 1 per cent, this year.
Honda leases a few dozen Claritys to Los Angeles-area drivers. The expense and complexity of building such cars, which use platinum and other costly metals, and a lack of hydrogen fuel stations has delayed retail sales plans for them until at least 2015 or later.
