Japanese auto parts giant Takata agreed to double a recall of US cars with potentially deadly airbags to a record of nearly 34 million vehicles, officials said, sending the firm's shares plunging in Tokyo today.
Takata is also admitting for the first time that its airbags installed in the cars of 11 major automakers are defective, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced, blaming the problem for "at least" five deaths.
But officials said it could take years to get enough replacement airbag inflators - the source of the problem - for all the cars equipped by Takata.
"The Department of Transportation is taking the proactive steps necessary to ensure that defective inflators are replaced with safe ones as quickly as possible, and that the highest risks are addressed first," Foxx said.
"We will not stop our work until every airbag is replaced."
The recall, the largest in US auto history, comes after Takata Corp and its US subsidiary TK Holdings officially agreed in a consent order with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that a defect related to the inflators raised safety issues.
The move is aimed at replacing a defect in the airbags' inflators that can cause them to deploy with explosive force, sending metal shrapnel hurtling toward drivers and passengers.
The US announcement does not include millions of other vehicles recalled in other countries over the same problem.
A Takata spokesman was unable to give a global recall tally, and said the firm, one of the world's biggest airbag suppliers, was discussing the figure with its automaker clients.
Takata is facing calls for a criminal probe and was accused in a US class-action lawsuit of "deception and obfuscation" over the defect. Its biggest airbag client, Honda, has been named in the claim that alleges the pair conspired to hide the flaw for years.
In Tokyo, Takata shares nosedived 12 per cent before recovering slightly to end today morning's session down 8.76 per cent. The stock has lost more than half its value since the start of last year.
"Reacting to the bad news, investors are saying to themselves 'again?!'," said Nobuyuki Fujimoto, senior market analyst at SBI securities.
Mark Rosekind, head of the NHTSA, said automakers that installed the Takata airbags in their cars and trucks would now have to announce specific vehicle recalls.
Those automakers are Honda, Toyota, General Motors, BMW and Ford, among others.
